


An Unexpected Truth

by lindajenner



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 17:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 65,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9247553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lindajenner/pseuds/lindajenner
Summary: Two men bound by a CurseSurrounded by People, Yet Completely AloneOne live with lies, He knows only loyaltyOne lives with hatred, He knows only sadnessTogether they foundAn Unexpected Truth





	1. Chapter 1

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

 

The first thing I thought was - MINE!

The second thing was - “I would give up hiding for him.” And given why I’d been in hiding for nearly 10 years, that was no small matter.

 

By the time that thought had registered, the three men chasing the slender young man had caught up to him and it was clear that they were not going to leave him alone until he was unconscious or dead. They were using fists and feet to beat him. Something in me shattered, like a window broken. I stepped towards them.

“Thomas-” that was Christie, always trying to protect us.

“No” I said “Not this time. He's mine.”

“You can’t afford to-” he started.

“I can’t afford not to, not this time, Christie.”

''But-”

I ignored him, as I got closer to the small group of men and their victim.

“Beat it, pal.” said one.

“Not this time”, I said and drew the stubby Smith & Wesson Chief’s Special I kept hidden in the small of my back.

One of the men snickered, “Yeah, like that's gonna stop us.”

“Maybe not, but this will.” Good old Christie, always there to be my backup. He'd pulled the Heckler & Koch MP7 fully automatic (and fully illegal, dammit!) submachine gun from his backpack nicely in time to keep me; and my beautiful eyeful, alive. The three men put their hands up and started to back up. A very large, dark-haired man in dark clothes holding a machine gun is enough to make most people back off. Fast.

“Easy man, easy. Keep the safety on, we'll walk.”

“Yeah. The kid'll go home and his old man can finish this.”

“Not this time.” I growled.

“He always goes home sooner or later. The old man makes sure he keeps control of the kid. Always.”

With that they edged backwards through the undergrowth in the direction they had came from.

“Thomas-”

“Get the car Christie. I'm taking him with me.”

“Thomas-” he tried and again I cut him off

“Christie, get the car! Now!”

“Its right there,” he pointed to the curb about 20 feet from were we stood.

“Oh. Oops. Sorry Christie. I forgot we were headed back towards it.”

“Yeah, right. Ah...? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take him back to the hotel.”

“Uh...? What if he doesn't want to go with you?”

Oh... It hadn't occurred to me that what I wanted might not be wanted. I knelt down beside the young man. Concerned that he might be afraid of us I slowly extended a hand towards him.

"Easy now, I wont hurt you. Neither will Christie. I want to help you. Will you let me do that? Please?”

He shook his head and whispered “No-one can help me, my father sent them.” He was shaking so badly, he was barely staying upright. Pale blonde hair shook as he trembled and his dark grey eyes were awash with unshed tears.

“Who’s your father?” Christie asked quietly trying to be unthreatening, (yeah right, like that's gonna work, I thought, Christie being the size he was) but the young man just answered.

“Matthew de Silvary.”

“Oh. Oh, that's sweet! You just picked the right guy to rescue you, kiddo. Thomas here? He can help if you'll let him.” Where the hell did Christie come up with that? He’d never spoken out like this before. He was always the strong silent type; we normally had to pry words out of him with a crowbar.

"So if Matthew's your father that would make you Jeremy, right?”, he continued. I looked at Christie, the dark-haired man’s bright blue eyes looked at me in shock. We’d just been discussing Jeremy de Silvary. Only minutes before we had left a café and seven people after having talked about employment offers, two of the women wanted us to offer Jeremy a position as well. They said that he’d been instrumental at the start of the project we were discussing. I was uncertain and wanted to talk to Michael about it, particularly if Matthew de Silvary was involved. The two women painted a dreadful picture of violence; of financial, psychological, verbal and physical abuse. The whole spectrum. Just because Jeremy was homosexual. Christie knew that I wanted to help, but the risk of exposing ourselves was so great, was it worth it? We had been hesitant. But now…?

If this was Jeremy, then my answer was a resounding, YES!

I couldn’t leave this gentle young man to that sort of pain and neither would Christie, not now that we had a face to go with the information supplied to us. We have both been on the wrong end of physical violence, but not like this. While Christie had been beaten and dealt with psychological abuse, I myself had fallen foul of indirect and attempted violence. I may be gay, but I’d never been on the receiving end of homophobia. Not where we lived and given the people I surrounded myself with. Our family did not tolerate any type of victimisation, not of any sort.

Why was I still kneeling with my hand out?

"Yeah I'm Jeremy.” He spat out the name almost like it was a curse.

“I'm Christie de'Belle and your rescuer today is Thomas Chamberlin. Thomas is here to poach a research team from your old man. And kid, he got all five of the team he wanted and as well as two of the research assistants that were maybes.”

"Who? I-. Wait? Thomas Chamberlin? I know that name. Ann! Ann was supposed to meet with you today! Have you seen her? Is she okay? He threatened to hurt her, just because she spoke to me. She is okay, isn’t she?” Jeremy asked, he was starting to get frantic. Talk about a response!

“Yes, Jeremy. She’s fine. We left her and the others just a few minutes ago. We met with them to talk change of employment. Offering them better money and greater scope for development.” If he knew Ann Western and she wanted us to employ him too, then he knew that I was gay, it was one of the first things we told perspective employees, as we strongly fostered a minority-safe work environment. Regardless of the minority.

“Oh. Did-? Were they interested? My father doesn’t give them much to work with. He thinks that he needs to be involved in every stage, but all he’s doing is slowing them down. He interferes and then blames m-, someone else for misplacing parts or losing files.” Hmm, had he been about to say ‘me’, but caught himself? Interesting.

“Yes, they were all interested, but not all of them have signed on yet. There are some holdouts. I’m sure that they will all be on board before we are finished.”

“Oh. Um? Who? Who are you talking to? If there’s only seven, you’re not meeting the whole department. I know the research department. It’s the only place I can go without my father’s men following me. My father thinks Grant Johns and Mike Carter are the best programmers, but they’re not. No way. Which ones are you-?” He was so brave, talking to us when he must be in such pain. The beating he’d taken wasn’t a gentle thing, they’d meant to hurt him, and badly at that.

"Ah… Thomas?' Christie looked at me. I was too distracted by the winces Jeremy made with almost every breath and the bruises already starting to show.

"Oh... Right... We got Luke Sanford, Joshua Renaldi, Peter Jameson, Andy Lee and Gwen Isaac. They were the five members of the research team we wanted, and Ann Western and Jessica Reach are the two assistants that we wanted to come with the team. We are hoping to fly all seven of them to Vancouver in a couple of days. We have removalists scheduled for the day before, they will do the pack up and move as well as the unpacking at the other end. Houses are ready for them and have been since we started talking to Luke and Joshua two weeks ago.”

Jeremy looked at me. “Ann's going? She’s tried to help me, but..." he trailed off.

“Yep we got them all.” Christie was kinda smug about it too, but he left out that Ann and Gwen were the holdouts. They wanted us to take Jeremy, too. Well, now that we’d seen him and saw first-hand the abuse he was dealing with, it was clear we would.

'Please. I... I don't want to go back. I can help. I… I worked with Luke and Ann on the facial recognition protocols. Please!” He was shaking and babbling, he reached out and grabbed my hands trying to hold on to me tightly.

“I'll get the door.”

“Thanks Christie.”

I scooted closer and eased my arms around him, uncertain of whether he was going to be afraid of me or if he would let me pick him up. He put his arms around my neck and held on a best he could. He was so light, too light. At 181 pounds, I outweighed him by at least 70 pounds, possibly as much as 80. I stood slowly, very slowly. With Jeremy in my arms it was now abundantly clear that there was no way he was going to be able to walk even the short distance to the car. The beating had taken a toll on him and now that the adrenalin was leaving him, he was a strong as a well-cooked noodle.

“Here we go,” I said. As we reached the car I went to set him on his feet but it was a good thing that I didn't let go because he just crumpled with a sigh before his boots could hit the ground. I gently scooped him back and slid him into the car.

 

His eyes had shut as he fell and they didn't open again for nearly 2 hours, long enough for me to get scared and for Christie to organise everything.

Doctors. Food. Clothes. Hotel rooms. The only thing he didn't do, was to try to get me to leave Jeremy's side. As well as a brief personal summary, he managed to get Jeremy’s medical history, phone records and even banking history. Medically the man was either accident prone (but given the abuse history we were told about, that was unlikely) or the victim of ongoing horrendous beatings.

He had two phones, one provided by his father and probably monitored, I turned it off and removed the battery, checking for tracking devices. Yep, a RFID chip ( **R** adio **F** requency **ID** entification). The other phone was clean, it was a prepaid and cheap at that, he made very few calls, most to Ann Western and Gwen Isaacs. Banking was the real surprise though, he had a small credit account paid by his father, but he also has two secondary accounts that he’d managed to squirrel away a quite reasonable sum into. Small deposits made frequently add up over time, particularly with good interest rates.

 

More an hour after getting Jeremy back to the hotel, the doctor arrived. The older man stomped in the door of the hotel suite and promptly snarled at me to “Call me Doc, we’ll get along.” It turns out Doc was not a friend to Matthew de Silvary and was more than happy to come to our hotel and check my beaten prize over. He swore long and colourful when he first walked into my bedroom and saw Jeremy, but he was thorough when it came to his job. While I was alarmed, he wasn’t too concerned about Jeremy not having woken yet, he said he’d been the de Silvary family doctor for years and knew Jeremy’s history well. He left recently, after arguing with de Silvary about his treatment of Jeremy.

“Bruises, muscle strain, pupils responding well, so no concussion. Good. May need some therapy on those fingers, but no obvious breaks and no stitches needed. He’ll hurt for a couple of days. This is as much exhaustion and shock as the beating he’s taken. He only sleeps when he feels safe, so this is good. It’s usually at college he sleeps. Used to get reported to his father for sleeping through lectures.” He continued his examination, making notes and muttered to himself.

Finally he stood and moved away from the bed where I’d laid Jeremy down. I was not terribly surprised to discover that I didn’t like someone else that close to him, even in a professional sense. I seemed that I _was_ a product of my genetics after all. I thought that when Merri, my twin sister, was murdered I would never find the other half of soul, my Heart, but obviously I was wrong. He was lying on my bed only feet from me. I needed to protect him. I needed to protect him, but I needed to not smother him, he had to be free to choose or refuse me.

The irony was, that to protect him I had to get him away from the people who should be protecting him but weren’t. How? At this point my mind had shut down in shock. I couldn’t get past the fact that he was my Heart. I thought that ended with Merri’s death. He was my Heart. My Heart. My Heart! I had found my Heart!

How was I going to protect him? I had no ideas, I was totally blank. That was _so_ not like me. I needed to talk to Michael, maybe he could come up with something. Right now all I could think about was I had found him. I needed a distraction; and badly. I hoped that the doctor was going to be enough of one. He was sitting in front of the doors to the private deck. As soon as I pulled myself away from the door to the bedroom, the doctor started to speak. Bluntly.

“Matthew de Silvary is a bullying bastard who hates his son. All because the lad is gay. He’s tried counselling and even went so far as to try and get the boy admitted to a facility to "cure" him. I can’t stand the man. He’s been hiding behind his position for years, while he tortured that boy. As soon as I found out and confronted him, he had me tossed from the hospital board and even from staff. Okay, that’s not much of a loss as I had been about ready to leave anyway. Hospital politics; just plain stupid. But he used his society influence to do it, that’s wrong! And what’s worse? He did it so could keep abusing his son! He’s a monster! You’re not going to let Jeremy go back to him, are you? If you’re not going to help him, I will. His father is going to come looking for him when those goons admit they didn't do what they were told to do. If you're smart you'll get him out of town fast.”

It was nice to see that someone wanted to help. Maybe he could come up with something. It was so _not_ like me, not to have the solution.

“No. I don’t want him to go back, but I don’t know what to do next. I’m running at a loss here. There has to be a way to keep him away from his father and those beasts. Any ideas, Doc?” My mind was definitely not working right.

“Hmmm...” he looked thoughtful for a few minutes and he got to his feet and started to pace back and forth. After a few minutes, where I just watched him and forced myself not to go back to the bedroom to check on Jeremy, Doc stopped and turned to look out at the skyline.

"How attached to him are you? How long have you known him? How attached is he to you?”

I drew a breath in to answer him, but before I could say a word, Jeremy groaned and both Doc and I moved towards to the bedroom quickly, we were standing one on each side of the bed when he opened his eyes. Jeremy took one look at Doc and even though he must have been in considerable pain he scrambled away from Doc and just about climbed me to get into my arms, wrapping his arms tightly around my neck.

“No, no! You said you'd help me! Please, no!” He was almost incoherent with panic, so obviously he remembered Doc. He must have thought that Doc still worked for his father. I put my arms around him, one going to the back of his head and eased it to my shoulder, the other firm about his ribs. God, he was so skinny, like scrawny-skinny.

“I'm not letting you go. Doc is just making sure that those bastards didn't do any serious damage to you. Easy sweet, easy,” I kept murmuring reassuringly until he started to settle. When he had calmed enough to listen, he eased up on the pressure on my neck but didn't let go. Neither did I.

“Well,” said Doc. “That answers that. How do we plan on keeping young Jeremy here out away from his father? Now, I have a couple of ideas but they're kind of drastic. Want to hear them?”

“Please, I... I… please don't call me Jeremy, I hate it, only my father and his security staff ever called me Jeremy. I hate it!”

“Easy... It’s OK. What do the people you trust call you? What about Luke and Ann, what do they call you?” I was all for loosing the stuffy name, but what to call him? I know what I preferred.

“I... um. They used to call me Jerry, until my father found out, anyway. He made sure that they understood that I wasn't to spend time alone with them anymore. Other than them I have no friends. He wouldn't let me hang out with any of his friend’s sons in case I they found out I was gay or I infected their sons with it. If I went anywhere I always had one or more of his security staff following me. I couldn't go anywhere! He controlled everything! I broke into his safe last night and stole my passport, birth certificate and some cash. I also took my mothers jewellery, just the stuff her mother left her. Stuff that she told me she was going to give me. Father said that I couldn't have it unless I married a woman he chose! I had to get out! I had to!” He was almost in hysterics again, clinging to me.

“Shhh... We’ll make sure you're safe.” Doc was good; he knew just what to say to reassure the boy.

“We will 'Remy. We will. Now. Doc, you said that you had a couple of ideas, what are they?” Maybe if I started calling him something different, he’d stay calmer for longer.

I led them both over to the two sofa’s, smiling when I sat because my ‘Remy didn't just sit beside me. No, he didn't stop wriggling until he was sitting between the arm of the sofa and me, cuddling in to me with his head resting in my shoulder again, like the closer he was the safer he was and he couldn’t have been any closer if he’d been sitting in my lap. Doc smiled at both of us and nodded, like it was just what he expected 'Remy to do.

"Well. The first is simple, change his name and appearance and get him out of town. But I have to say that I think it could be the harder option because I don't think Matthew will give up without looking.” He stood, Remy jerked and held me tighter until Doc started pacing across the room. God, he was so afraid of other men, other people, but so trusting of me. It was a very heady thing to see.

“I think while my other idea might be the safest, it’s definitely the most difficult. But I think, if we can pull it off, it may just be enough to stop Matthew, particularly as he is so homophobic. It will stop him as there can be no hiding and 'Remy will be out of his reach permanently.”

“What do you mean? How?" 'Remy queried watching Doc pace.

"You two get married. This brings out into the open the fact 'Remy is gay and means Matthew can’t hide behind excuses. As 'Remy is over 21 he can’t stop it even if he finds out first. He would be unable to hide this and to save face with his circle he would have to make like he not only knew in advance but approved it as well. If we’re lucky he will distance himself from the two of you. So? Well? What do you think? No. No, the real question is? Can we pull it off?”

'Remy and I gaped at doc for a moment, then, we looked at each other. Was he desperate enough to take that chance? If he took the chance was I going to be strong enough to let him ago if he changed his mind? Did it matter? Was I going to let him go, anyway? No, never. I raised my eyebrow at him, he nodded and so I put my head back and yelled for Christie! When he came running, so quietly for such a large man, we gave him the outline of what we planned to do and then we had to wait for him to stop laughing. The Shit! Of course when he finished, he got his act together and made it happen.

 

Less than three hours later the battered boy we rescued became my husband. Christie had made it happen. Applications. Blood tests. Rings. Celebrant. Flowers. Clothes. Medications for 'Remy. Food. Witnesses. Everything. Christie stood at my side, just as he's done since the day I rescued him and brought him to make a home with us. He knew first hand what I was like with rescuing people.

He’d also got hold of Ann Western and asked her to stand for 'Remy. Of course we had little doubt she would, she'd tried to help him. As soon as she realized what was happening, she agreed to stand with ‘Remy and stated also that as he was now safe from his father, she and Gwen Isaacs would have no hesitation to accept our offer, if I would allow ‘Remy to work with them. I told her that whether or not ‘Remy worked with the team would be up to him. She then proceeded to explain that ‘Remy is the brains behind every successful new project de Silvary came out with in the last 6 years. He’d said that he’d worked with Luke and Ann on the facial recognition protocols, he hadn’t said that he had designed the protocols for the iris and retina recognition or the storage compression and expansion software. De Silvary wasn’t going to let him go easily. No ‘Remy – no new projects. I took her seriously and got Christie to get our brother Anderson in place, fast. I wasn’t letting him go. Not without a fight.

 

Meeting Ann for the first time earlier in the day was kinda spooky, I kept seeing my sister. She looked like my sister, she sounded like my sister, and she even smelt like my sister. Considering that Merridiann was dead and all the history that went with that, I was more than a little freaked. But at the same time there was a part of me that was comforted by Ann's similarity to Merridiann because I got to pretend that the family curse still continued.

Knowing that, I will have to explain sooo much to my husband. Well, given that my husband was still in large amounts of pain, that meant nothing but talking was going to happen anyway. I'll have plenty of time tonight to explain me to him and all the attendant complications that follow me around, including Christie, Tobias, Marianne and Michael, as well as the twins and everyone else.

God, how was I going to do that?

 

It was a pretty quick wedding as weddings go. The celebrant was Doc’s wife and the hotel did the catering on the quiet after being told who the grooms were. The head chef and the Concierge had both worked for de Silvary and despised him as much as Doc did. Probably why the Concierge recommended Doc. The hotel also did the flowers and a photographer was offered and while we decided to be careful, I did want at least a couple of pictures. Poor 'Remy was so bruised from head to toe, only Doc’s meds and my arms kept him on his feet during the ceremony but also we wanted to have proof to shut Matthew de Silvary up if needed. Once that was done we were ensconced on a luxurious sofa for the celebration and finger foods. We invited hotel staff and any guests that the Concierge thought would keep quite for a couple of days; we’d be gone by Friday night.

It was so hard to watch 'Remy eat, he picked like he was afraid of eating in front of people. Once I started to feed him directly, he ate like the food was going to disappear. Needless to say, it didn't take long before he had eaten his fill.

We didn't stay there long, 'Remy needed rest and he wasn't going to get that in a room full of people. After half an hour or so I picked him up in my arms and thanked everyone for their help and for being with us to mark the occasion. I carried my poor 'Remy down the hall to our rooms and put him on the bed ever so gently, as even in the short walk to our rooms he had fallen asleep.

I moved the covers, tucked him in and as I sat beside him, he curled onto his side and tried to slide an arm up to my chest, I lay back so he could be more comfortable. I spent the next little while watching him and remembering my early life, one that was very different to what I had now. When I’d lived in a different country under a different name with a different family. Remembering was painful but I need to remember because I needed to tell Remy who I had been, in that different life.

 

Before we could have that little chat however, I need to make a phone call and I was dreading it. How to explain all of this? How to explain how much 'Remy meant to me? How to explain that 'Remy was worth the risk? Time to call the man who saved my live the night my father shot and killed my family, the night I was murdered. I was not looking forward to this.

 

“Hello?”

“Hey, Michael.”

“Thomas? You all right? I expected your call hours ago. What happened?”

“Ah… You better get Marianne and then both of you had best sit down. Please?”

“Thomas!”

“Please, Michael?” He grumbled, but called Marianne and when I could hear the squawks of both of them sitting on that hideous swing thing she loves, that was when I spoke up.

“Everything went fine with the poaching; we got the 5 people for the team we wanted and even the two extra research assistants that had worked on the project initially. We have removalists going to their places tomorrow and then its up to them to do the packing and transiting and also unpack at your end. We also got the man behind ALL of de Silvary’s new ideas for the last few years. All of that has gone just fine. It just that, …well, ... after that things changed.... Big time!”

“How big time?” Michael asked

“I got married an hour ago.” I was wincing as I said it.

The shock was so strong that I could hear it in the silence.

Finally Michael spoke. “You did what? To who?”

“I'll give you the full version when we get home but for now the short version is, Jeremy de Silvary's father hated him because he's gay and was having his security team beat and generally bully him every single day, he never went anywhere without an abusive tail. Christie and I finished our lunch in one of those tiny cafés with the team and headed back to the car. Just before we reached it ‘Remy ran out of the trees with his fathers security team behind him, when they caught him, they beat the stuffing out of him. Christie and I intervened and he didn't want to stay with us because of who his father was and he knew that his father would cause problems for us. Christie told him who we were and what we were doing and he begged for our help. Back at the hotel I got a doctor in check him out and the doc was very informative about Remy's father and he came up with the idea of marriage.”

“So its a temporary thing? Or is it an in name only thing?”

“No, Michael, it’s permanent. He’s mine; my Heart, my husband and I will never let him go. The moment I saw him I knew that I will love him until my last breath and beyond!”

“But-”

“No Michael, no buts. Not this time! He’s mine and that's the end of it. Christie made sure that all the I's are dotted and the T's crossed. There are no loopholes, no escape clauses; no way either of us are getting out of this. You know how good at this Christie is.”

“Yeah. So now what? What is the next step for you two? Oh any luck on your other quest?”, he still sounded stunned, but Marianne still hadn't said a word, it was like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Nerve-wracking doesn't cover it!

"Ma?" I needed to know. One way or the other I needed to know.

"Bring him home, baby. Bring him home.”

“Thanks, Ma. I plan to do just that. Michael. Yeah, we found him. Karma is a bitch and I love her! He’s in the hospital wing of the prison. Cancer. He has maybe a month. Probably less. Likely less. I hope. Anyway we found him, but nothing on the other two. Christie’s gonna do some door knocking and see if anyone remembers the incident, he thought maybe we could get the two research assistants to help online. We did find one thing though; there is no death certificate for either of them registered. Christie thinks that it could be something to do with Ricky never being found but he's just not sure. Hospital records have them both being transferred to federal care and then there's nothing. Nothing! Oh God, Michael. I just need to know, yeah? I'll deal with it, but I just need to know. Need to say goodbye. I can’t let go until I know!”

"Thomas!” Michael’s voice cut through my despair but did nothing to alleviate it.

“Thomas?" I looked down, Remy was still leaning on my shoulder like he had when I first lay down, but now he was looking up at me.

"Sorry sweet, just talking to my family. Would you like to say hello?” Change the subject, change the subject. No trying to explain things out of order.

"What-? I. Do you want me to? Do they?” So scared my new husband was.

"Thomas. Put us on speaker. He needs to know and it probably should be from you, but too late now." Michael had to almost yell for me to hear him, Remy had caught my attention instantly and completely.

“Okay, Michael.” I pressed the button to turn the speaker on so the four of us could talk without difficulties.

"‘Remy, I'm Michael Chamberlin. This is my wife, Marianne.” Michael was always so confident.

“Hi ‘Remy.” Ma was almost in tears, “You better call me Ma, just like Thomas and the other kids.”

"There’s more than just Thomas?” More? Oh 'Remy if only you knew!

“Yeah. We've got... Oh, god. There’s more than just...”

“Lets start at the beginning, Thomas. If you're going to keep your ‘Remy, he needs to know everything.” Michael cut her off.

“What?” ‘Remy looked at the phone and then back to me.

"I know Michael. I had planned to tell him after he woke up. But… Well. Here goes nothing.”

“Thomas? What’s wrong?” Remy was only concerned with how I felt, nothing else.

“We need to tell you a story, Remy. A true story. That started ten years ago, tomorrow.”

I took a deep breath and started.


	2. Chapter 2

Friday, August 8, 2003

 

 

It was our birthday. It was supposed to be a happy day. Not like this. Not like this!

 

The second gunshot sounded too loud in the silence of the room. The first had almost been lost in the noise of the party, but not the second one. Anthony James held the gun sure and strong in both hands. The tall dark blonde man, with a slight build made sure that he had shot true before turning towards me. I watched my twin sister Merridiann jerk as red appeared on her chest, her heart shaped face blank in shock. Lulu Western screamed and pushed me out the window, her strength surprising. I heard more shots as I fell. Fire burned on my face and shoulder and my arm tingled. I scrambled to my feet as I heard Lulu screaming at me to run. 15 years conditioned me to do what she told to. I was running before I realised it.

The window I fell through backed onto the forestry reserve with all its trees and bushes. I ran and hid, and then ran as fast as I could away from the house. It wasn’t long before I could hear Anthony James blundering through the reserve somewhere behind me. There was no way I was gonna stop while I could hear him!

I ran into a clearing, I didn't even see it coming! No thinning of trees, no warning, nothing! Before I could dodge, I tripped over the tie-down ropes of a tent and was sent sprawling in the dirt. I thought it was over, I was dead just like my twin. Fate, it seems, had other plans for me that day. As I rolled, trying to get back to my feet, I rolled into a person’s legs. When I looked up, I recognised a teacher from my school. Before he or I could say a word, we both heard more gunshots. Irrationally, I wondered how many bullets Anthony had. How long before he used them all?

Mr Greenly was the new language teacher at our high school and because I was in the advanced program I had him for both Russian and German. He was a large-ish man, about 6’4” and wide to match, to me he seemed huge, wide, tall and as solid a brick wall. He lent down grabbed my by the arm and yanked me to my feet with little effort, his shaggy dark hair falling in his eyes as he dragged me away from the tents, within a few strides we were into the trees. It took me a few seconds to figure out that we had not gone in the same direction that I had been headed originally. He knew that Anthony would keep going in the same direction and so was buying us time, it took me hours of going back over that mad run to work it out, but he’d figured it out in seconds. Minutes later, that seemed more like hours, we no longer heard Anthony clearly.

“What the hell Ricky? Who's that?”

I looked at Mr Greenly, trying to catch my breath.

“Oh shit. You're hurt!” he was as breathless as I was. I didn’t look to see where I was hit, it all hurt. Face, arm and shoulder.

I told him what had happened. That my father, had come to our birthday party with a gun and shot my twin twice before turning to me, that our mother Lulu had pushed me out the window. And well… here we were.

"Merri- he shot Merri?”

"I think... I think Merri's dead, I don't know, it all happened so quick. I don't know!”

“We need-”

We heard Anthony shoot again, much closer, this time he was yelling too.

"Ricky! You come back here, you little shit! If I hafta chase you, you'll be sorry!” If he found me I was gonna be sorry. No, not sorry, I was gonna be dead.

Mr Greenly grabbed my arm and we were off again! Running. Good thing I was long distance track and field at school. Turns out, Mr Greenly was pretty good at the running thing too, maybe not as light on his feet as I am, but given his size, still pretty good. As we ran it got darker, the sun had set nearly an hour ago. My face and shoulder hurt and combining the wounds and that Mr Greenly had a death-grip on my arm, I was struggling to keep going. Finally we slowed, Mr Greenly eyed me before pushing me over to a fallen tree. He tore my sleeve from the body my shirt and then off my arm. He looked at my shoulder and shook his head.

“Can’t do much here, Ricky.” He whispered almost silently. He ripped my sleeve and shirt to strips and used them as bandages on my shoulder and arm. Oh, ow! That hurt!

“We can’t go much further with your shoulder the way it is. We need to get help, but who can we trust? There's a cabin close to here, we might be able get help there. Maybe.” He didn’t sound too sure of that!

“How far?” I responded.

“There's a clearing about a quarter mile from here. The cabin is rented out in the hunting season, that’s only a week or two away, but now...I don't know. We'll just have to try our luck. We can’t go back towards town yet, not with your father hunting you. We can’t stay still either not with your arm and shoulder bleeding like they are.”

The bleeding had nearly stopped but I was beginning to feel light-headed and even I knew that the bleeding and dizzy are bad news together.

Mr Greenly helped me to my feet, but he kept a hand on my good arm as we made our way in the direction he pointed. We reached the edge of the clearing just in time to see a twin cab truck pull up. A tall bald man got out of the driver’s side and moved around to the passenger side that was nearer to us. Mr Greenly was about to stand up and call out to the man when he opened the door of the truck and dragged a young woman out. She was tied up hand and foot, the man bent and draped her over his shoulder and it was clear that she was fighting him, trying to get away. Mr Greenly eased back into the trees quietly.

“Hey Jimmy! Who'd ya catch this time?” It was him, Anthony. He came into the clearing from our right, we hadn't heard him coming. We were both shocked at how close we had come to him catching us, that we froze just inside the tree line.

“Hey, Tony! This here is Maria, she’s gonna be my fun for a few days. After that? Well? Maybe I’ll sell her off to Bobby-Joe. You know me, Tony, once they stop fighting they’re not worth keeping.” He laughed.

“Yeah. It’s no fun if they don’t fight, is it?” Anthony commented.

“So… Whatcha up to?” The big blonde, Jimmy asked. Oh God, they knew each other! Were we ever going to get out of this?

“The boy, Ricky. He’s running. Jeez, Jimmy, lend me that hound of yours? I took care of the slut and the other brat, but that bitch Lulu pushed him out the window before I got the chance to finish him. Damn it! I spent the last hour or so chasing the runt. He’s headed down hill but I lost him at the shale crossing. Help me out Jimmy?”

“Yeah sure. Let me put this inside and I’ll come with you. Just, you’ll owe me one, yeah?”

“Sure, Jimmy. Sure.”

If they hunted me with hounds there was no chance I was going to get away from them. How was I going to get Mr Greenly to leave me and get out of here without alerting Anthony to our hiding place? No chance. Like he knew just what I was thinking Mr Greenly put his big hand over my mouth and shook his head at me, frowning.

While this was happening, Jimmy was carrying the young woman into the cabin. He was only in the cabin for a couple of minutes, but the time dragged until he emerged. He headed around the side of the cabin next, coming back with a large caramel-coloured dog wearing a black leather harness.

“Right, let’s go. Have you got something for Ralph to scent on?”

“Yep” Anthony held out a jacket to Jimmy, he had to have taken it from beside the back door, pity for him it wasn’t mine. Maybe that would but us some time.

“Cool. Keep it until we get back to the shale crossing.” With that the two of them and the dog were on the move, headed back towards our right, where Anthony had entered the clearing.

Mr Greenly and I looked at each other for a minute or two, then, I struggled to my feet and headed for the cabin. Just those few minutes of not moving had let the adrenalin ebb and my legs were shaky and trembling.

“Ricky? Where the hell are you going?”

“I’m not leaving her there for him to hurt!”

“You can barely walk by yourself, how are you going to get her out there?” I didn’t care how; I wasn’t going to let Jimmy do whatever he had planned, to her. No way! I didn’t care that I was on the verge of passing out, I had to get her out.

“I don’t know, Mr Greenly, but I can’t let him hurt her!”

“Okay, Ricky,” he sighed. He took me by the arm again and I staggered towards the cabin and onto the porch. He held me while I opened the door and I stumbled the rest of the way inside, squinting and groping for a light switch. Flipping the switch, we could see that the cabin was really shabby, just one main room with what appeared to be a bathroom leading off it. The young woman that Jimmy called Maria was slumped across the bottom of a cot bed pushed against the southern wall. Given the way she was laying and how uncomfortable it would have been to have her arms and feet tied like that, she must have been drugged. Her mousey blonde hair, just a shade or two lighter than mine, was messy and twisted around her face.

“The bastard! He’s drugged her!” Mr Greenly sounded more shocked at that than at anything else that had happened so far.

“Yeah,” I barely managed to grunt a reply, I was so tired. The shock, pain, the running and the blood loss, was finally catching up with me. Mr Greenly looked at me. He grabbed Maria and shook her but with no response, he was forced to pick her up in his arms. It took nothing for him to carry her she was so slender, really she was not that much larger than me and I was small for my age and she had to be 18 or 19. When he reached the door he turned, looked at me, and raised one eyebrow, questioning why I hadn’t opened the door for him. I hadn’t taken a single step, mostly because if I tried, I was going to end up on the floor.

“Oh great!” He came back to me and hooked my arm between his arm and Maria and we began the shuffle to the door. As we got through the door he let my arm slip and carried Maria to Jimmy’s truck, putting her in the passenger side before coming back for me. Mr Greenly had slipped her into the foot-well of the front passenger seat and I climbed into the same seat, while Mr Greenly went around the front and got in the drivers door.

“Shit! He took the keys. We’re dead.” He slammed his hands on the steering wheel.

“Nah, gimme two.” I was starting to slur my words. Not good.

While he may have been trying to kill me, my father did teach me something, how to hot-wire a car, among other things. Not many of them legal, not when I think about it clearly. It took me about 30 seconds to get the truck started, but it purred when I did. Sweet.

Mr Greenly put the truck in gear and for the next mile or so, I hung on for my life, trying to brace myself and Maria at the same time and not hit my arm or shoulder on the door frame. The road wasn’t much more than a goat track. By the time we swung onto the tarmac I was sure my teeth were about ready to rattle out of my head. Instead of heading west to Sycamore and the nearest hospital, like I thought we would, Mr Greenly turned east on route 64 and headed for Chicago. I grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler between the seats and drank it slowly, trying not to be sick. Less than two hours passed before we stopped next, but it passed so slowly, I felt like I could have counted the seconds.

When we did stop next, it was in front of some kind of large building, there were few street lights so it was very dark and hard to see, so I wasn’t real sure if it was a warehouse, a storage place or it could even have been an office block, I just couldn’t see. Mr Greenly got out and spoke to a security guard for a minute or two, and then we were moving again. This time to a larger, definitely industrial area, again stopping in front of another building, I could see this one was a warehouse and again he spoke to a guard. When he got back in the truck, he waited while the guard opened a vehicle-sized door and then drove the truck inside. We parked beside a large dark coloured family car.

“We’re changing cars, Ricky. Out.”

I wasn’t really bleeding anymore, just oozing and was starting to feel a little more like myself, but very tired and sore.

“Okay, Mr Greenly” I said. “What about her?” I nodded towards the foot well where Maria lay. I wasn’t real certain but I thought I’d seen her eyes blink when the car stopped at the door and maybe a few times while we were on the road.

“I’ll bring her. She can go in the back seat. There should be a blanket or rug there to put over her. We can’t afford someone to see those ropes, until we can get them off her.”

“Right” I replied and started to unfold myself out of the cramped space of the truck, knowing he would wait until I was out before picking Marianne up. I fell to the ground as I got out of the truck, my legs didn’t belong to me.

“Crap. C’mon Ricky. Up here.” He hauled me to my feet yet again and put me in the front seat of the other car. “Stay there”, was all he said as he headed back for Maria. He placed her very gently in the back seat and I managed to throw a rug over her, so he could tuck it up and around her neck.

I’m gay, so it’s kinda obvious that I’m not into girls, but Mr Greenly definitely was. His fingers slid from Maria’s neck and up over her cheek before brushing her hair off her face. He was so gentle with her. Maybe I would set the two of them up when all this crap was over and done with, I had a good reputation as a matchmaker with a high success rate.

While he was careful with me, he wasn’t as gentle, it was almost like he didn’t see me as a person, just a kid. I was so small and slight, if you didn’t know that today was our 15th birthday, you would say I was maybe 12 – 13 if you were being very generous. Mousey blonde hair and light hazel eyes meant I was forgettable. I was easy to overlook. I was used to being overlooked. I like being overlooked. It meant that when I did something, people never suspected me of being responsible. I got Merri into a lot of shit like that, but I always talked our way out of it, too.

Mr Greenly got in the driver’s seat of the car and started it, he put it in drive and we were on the road again. I’m glad he knew where we were going, but I kinda hoped that we were gonna stop soon. With my arm, shoulder and face still hurting and Maria was still out of it, we were gonna need some sort of medical help. We had no idea if Maria was gonna wake up or if she needed something to wake her up. I needed help, I had lost who-knew-how-much blood and while it had slowed to an ooze, blood still trickled down my arm, and I knew that bleeding for two hours was not a good thing. Plus, Mr Greenly and I needed food too. Put all that together and I hoped we were heading in the direction of either a hospital or a doctor. Given that Mr Greenly had not taken us straight to a hospital or police station, I think I was safe in thinking that a doctor was on the top of the list. Every so often I would look at Maria and yes, I could see her eyes open and slowly close again, maybe she would wake on her own, I didn’t know, but I knew she couldn’t be comfortable tied like that, so I used my pocket knife to cut the rope that was tying her hands but I couldn’t reach her feet. I threw the rope on the floor of the car, not game to throw it out the window.

The car stopped at yet another large warehouse, the guard looked at Mr Greenly for barely a second before opening the doors and pointing off into the right side of the warehouse. He pointed with what to me looked like a huge machine gun. He didn’t say a word, just pointed. Mr Greenly nodded and drove into the blackness, pulling to a stop in a small patch of light. That small patch of light made the rest of the place seem that much darker and colder.

“Stay here”, he said getting out of the car, he went to the front of the car and lent on the hood, waiting. After a minute or so, an older man in a dark suit, leaning on a crutch with a heavily bandaged foot approached Mr Greenly and they spoke quietly for maybe five minutes. They shook hands and as the old man walked off, lights came on overhead, showing him getting into the back seat of a light coloured car similar to what we were in. There was already someone in the driver’s seat, the car was started and driven out of the shed, it stopped so the old man could speak to the guard at the door.

“Let’s go, Ricky.” Mr Greenly helped me out of the car, and then reached in for Maria, he hooked my arm back through his as he held her cradled close to his chest. There was a mobile home styled trailer at the rear of the shed and that was where we were going. As we scrambled up the steps, Mr Greenly pointed to the right where the living area was.

“Go sit down, Ricky.” He turned to the left and the short hall that must lead to a bedroom. “I’ll be back in a minute. Okay?” He didn’t wait for me to answer, but moved carefully, trying not to let Maria’s head touch the walls or doorframes.

I managed to get to the sitting area by leaning on the wall as I shuffled along. Mr Greenly was back very quickly, he opened the fridge as he passed it and grabbed a bottle of water for each of us. He looked at me for a moment, and then opened one bottle for me.

“Thanks”, I had no energy to do more than whisper, I think I was in shock but it’s hard to tell, I could have just been exhausted, too. My hands where shaking so much I spilled some water as I swallowed. I don’t know how long we sat there, just sharing the quiet together.

There was a knock on the trailer door, startling me and making me jump and knock the now-empty bottle to the floor. When we looked at the door, there was a middle-aged woman wearing a white lab coat. She had to be the doctor. Mr Greenly got to his feet and opened the door. The woman said nothing to either of us, just came in and after looking at me for a minute or so, she turned and went down the hall to the bedroom. She was back within a couple of minutes, pulling open the old fashion doctors bag she was carrying. She pulled bandages, dressings and bottles of stuff out and set it all on the table in front of me.

“Get the shirt off.” I was snapped at. She obviously wasn’t happy to be here at this time of night, whatever the time was. Either that or she had the record for the world’s worst bedside manner.

Mr Greenly obviously knew how I was feeling because he came around to my side of the table and using a pair of scissors from the kitchenette, he cut my shirt up the middle of the back. This meant that he could slide the two sides of my shirt off without me having to move my shoulder.

The next couple of minutes were both excruciatingly painful and slightly fuzzy at the same time. The doctor cleaned my wounds, it turns out Anthony shot me in the upper arm and that my shoulder hurt because I had dislocated it either going through the window or hitting the ground, once she re-set it and dressed the wound, my arm was mostly just stiff and weak. The doctor dabbed liquid on a cloth and wiped one side of my face, that was when I realised I had cut my cheek, too. She left half a dozen more dressings and a roll of that paper tape stuff, on the table and went back to the bedroom to see to Maria.

Mr Greenly sat opposite me at the table, we looked at each other, neither of us sure of what to say. He looked as tired as I felt.

“Now what?” I finally asked. Why was he helping me? Why hadn’t he just called the police? Was he going to send me to the police? A hospital, maybe? Was Merri really dead? What about my mother? Anthony had told Jimmy that he had taken care of them, what did that mean? Why did he shoot us? My mind ran in circles, jumping from one question to the next with no end in sight.

“Well, that depends on how Maria is and what information Mr Santori, gets. I asked him find out what happened at your place. We need to know why your father did this and just how bad it is.”

“No.” I said, “I’m not going call him my father ever again! No real father would do that to his own children. We’ve only known him for a couple of months. He and mom met at a party, they were drunk, he left before Mom knew she was pregnant. He only found us about 3 months ago, he said he ran into one of Mom’s old school friends and they told him where we were. They were never gonna get together, I mean, Mom’s gay, like me. Only she likes girls. I mean-” I was babbling.

“Okay, cool down, Ricky, I get it. I get it, okay? Regardless, we still need to know what’s going on. Got it?” Mr Greenly was so calm, I wondered if anything got to him, bothered him. Then I remembered the way he touched Maria’s cheek and how his jaw had clenched as his fingers skimmed over the bruises there. Yeah, things got to him, but right now he was calm, because that was what we needed him to be.

“Yeah, okay. How long do you think that will take? Is he, Mr Santori, I mean. Is he good at getting that sort of information?”

“Yes, Ricky. Mr Santori is very good at getting information. I doubt it will take him very long. No more than an hour or two at most. He will want us out of here as fast as possible. In the mean time, I want you to eat something and try to get some sleep. We may have to move quickly. Okay?”

“Should I put some food and stuff in the car?” I asked. What did he mean? Were we going to be going somewhere else? Where?

“No. We won’t be keeping this car. Mr Santori will find us another car if we need it. We may not, yet.”

The doctor came back to the table and sat down.

“Right, young man. Your shoulder has a partial dislocation, I don’t think it’s all that serious, so you shouldn’t need x-rays. But you’re going to be strapped and in a sling for at least a week, maybe more. I’ve cleaned, stitched and dressed your arm, you’ll need to change the dressing daily for a while, when it’s not weeping, red or inflamed the dressing can stay for a few days at a time. Here’s five days worth of antibiotics, you’ll need to take them all, or risk infection. Your left cheek is cut, not deep enough for stitches, but the dirt I got out of it may mean that you’ll have a scar there. Not telling until it heals. You’re going to need a doctor to check your arm and take the stitches out in a week or so, get them to check it then, too. Not more than 10 days, got it? If the arm get sore it starts to weep, see a doctor immediately. Now, the girl. Her name as you guessed as Maria, Maria Costanzo. She’s going to be okay. She’s very scared, but wants to stay with you, she’s come out of a very bad situation. It might be best to let the boy sit with her for a while. She’s had a very rough night. That monster spiked her drink and then drugged her, he intended to sell her after he had enough of her! For now, you go sit with her, son.”

“What about a cup of tea? She must be thirsty? Can I take one to her?” I wanted make sure it was okay first.

“Yes, that’s fine. Take a bottle of water, too, something sealed. She might be spooked by an open drink.” Maybe the doctor didn’t have much of a bedside manner but she did care about what was best for her patients.

“There’s more to her situation than just that. We need to have a chat with Gio.” With that she indicated to Mr Greenly to leave the trailer with her.

Who was Gio?

I got busy making a pot of tea for Maria. I found a tray and put a cup and saucer on it, along with a small jug of milk, some sugar and a bottle of water. I thought for a minute and then raided the cupboards for a packet of cookies and added them to the tray, still sealed. When the kettle boiled I filled the small teapot from the bench and placing it on the tray too, I headed down the hall. Once it was dressed and strapped my arm was stiff and only slightly sore and thankfully the tray was so light, so I held the weight of it with my good arm and balanced with my hurt one. I paused at the door to the bedroom, it was open and I saw Maria on the bed. She had her feet brought up to her chest and was hugging them. She looked at me and I could see how scared she was. As I put the tray on the chair by the bed, I was surprised that I had managed not to spill anything. I sat on the floor near the door, trying to look younger than I was, well, it wasn’t that hard. I didn’t want her to be afraid of me.

“Hi. I’m Ricky.” I started.

“I know. My parents live in the house across the road from you.”

“Wow! I didn’t know. I don’t remember seeing you.” Why had I not seen her? I know we’d only been there for six months, but shouldn’t I have seen her if she lived across the road?

“No, you wouldn’t have. I’ve been away at college. My parents asked me to come home for a holiday, turns out they decided it was time I got married and had kids. They had even picked out the man they wanted me to marry! I didn’t like him, but my parents convinced me to go on one date with him. We went to the Dukebox, which is not my idea of a serious date. He looked around the room and walked straight over to a booth near the side door, then he asked what I would like to drink and once I told him he went to the bar and got it. After chatting for a few minutes, I started to feel sick and dizzy. He offered to run me to the hospital, which was only a couple of minutes away. I said no, I would get a cab. He offered to wait outside with me for a cab, he said the fresh air might help.

When we got outside, I was feeling even worse and he said his truck was just there and I should sit down until a cab came. He opened the door and shoved me in. Before I could move he jabbed me with a needle, then he tied my hands and feet and put tape over my mouth so I couldn’t scream. He drove for I don’t know how long before he stopped at the cabin. He opened the door and dragged me out. I thought when I heard that other man’s voice I was going to be okay, until Jimmy answered him. Then I heard what he said I knew I wasn’t going to get away. Jimmy carried me in and dropped me on a bed and I thought I was going to pass out. He left me there and went out the door.

It seemed like hours before I heard the door again and I thought he had come back with his friend. It wasn’t him, it was you and another man. I remember seeing both of you and thinking maybe you would help me. When the man with you picked me up, I felt so safe, like nothing could hurt me because he would protect me He got to the door before turning around like he was looking for something. He went back to you and the arm under my shoulders moved. The next thing I heard was the truck door shutting and the man swearing. Then the truck was moving and I don’t remember much else, just flashes of trees, streetlights and the two of you talking. There was nothing clear until the doctor was sitting beside me undoing the straps on my feet. She told me that you cut off the ropes around my hands in the car. She said that you had brought me here. That you wouldn’t leave me with him, Jimmy, I mean.”

She was sobbing while she was telling me all this. I edged up onto the bed at the end, but she was so upset I crawled up to the top of the bed. She reached out and clutched at me and I put my arms around her and held on. Her sobbing was loud enough that Mr Greenly and the doctor came running in. Mr Greenly knelt on the edge of the bed and pulled both Maria and me into his arms, he stayed like that for what seemed like hours but as probably only a few minutes, then sat down on the bed against the pillows with Maria on one side of him and me on the other, both of us cuddled up to him like he was the only safe thing in the room.

Maybe he was. He’d saved me from being shot and Maria from rape and god knows what else. He’d done all of this without either of us asking for help or him knowing why this was happening. The doctor sat on the foot of the bed and watched us for a few minutes before getting up and leaving us alone. I think she was making sure that Maria was okay with our new positions. Maria, like me, wasn’t letting go of Mr Greenly.

It just hit me. Anthony James said he has dealt with my twin Merri and our mother Lulu. My life was never going to be the same again; he had destroyed it. Merri had been the only thing in my life that was constant, even Lulu had let us down, but we had never done that to each other. I couldn’t go back, not with Anthony wanting me dead. What was I supposed to do now? He was a U.S. Marshal. If he wanted me dead he would find me, he could use Marshal service resources to find me, claiming his son was kidnapped or had runaway. Whatever he needed to do to find me. Why did he want to kill us? Did he kill Merri? Was I ever going to be safe? I held onto the only thing I could, Mr Greenly. In the few hours since I rolled into him, there had been shots fired, we ran from a U.S. Marshal, kidnapped a woman and stole a truck. What was next?

“What happens next?” It was like Maria read my mind.

“Next, I speak to Mr Santori and find out why Ricky’s father is trying to kill him.” I watched as his hand slid over her shoulder and up to her head, his fingers sliding over her hair, ever so gently. These two belonged together, he was large and reminded me of a giant teddy bear, and she was small and fragile, like a fairy almost. Dainty was the word that came to mind.

The doctor knocked on the door, she held out an armful of clothes.

“Here you go. There’s clothes for the three of you. Mr Santori has your information. He’s outside waiting for you.” She spoke to Mr Greenly. He nodded at me, so I got up and took the clothes from her. Mr Greenly touched Maria’s cheek and slowly stood, he looked at us both for a moment, nodded then turned and followed the doctor from the trailer.

I put the clothes on the bed and sorted them into guy’s things and girl’s things, making two untidy piles.

“You wanna go first? The bathroom is right there. I’m gonna heat up something to eat. You want something?” I pointed Maria in the right direction. We both may have been dirty and I may have been small for my age but I was still a teenager and food ruled everything, came before everything else.

“I… I don’t know.” She sounded so lost.

“The kitchen is on the other side of the bathroom, I hope me rattling around in it, won’t disturb your shower.” Somehow I knew she needed to know that either me, or Mr Greenly were close. “I know there was some cheese, I saw it, how about I make grilled cheese sandwiches? They’re easy to eat and if we don’t finish them now, we can eat them cold. Okay?” I babbled, anything to fill the silence and keep her calm.

Maria didn’t even try to hide her relief at what I said, with a shy smile she picked up the pile of girls things on the bed and walked into the bathroom. Once she closed the door, I headed back to the kitchen, making no effort to be quiet. I banged cupboard doors, knocked knives and slammed the fridge door and that was just getting things out.

When Mr Greenly came back inside a few minutes later, he looked shaken, more shaken by whatever the doctor and Mr Santori had to say than he had by anything else that had happened tonight. He looked at me for a few moments, shook his head and sat at the table.

“Watcha making? Do you always make so much noise in the kitchen? Where’s Maria? Have you had a wash yet? Do any of the clothes fit?” Talk about questions, he never even gave me a chance to answer one before firing off the next!

“Whoa! I’m making grilled cheese sandwiches. No, I’m usually a lot quieter, but Maria seemed scared to be on her own, so I said I was noisy in the kitchen. Maria’s in the bathroom. No, to the wash, I’ll get there when she’s finished. I haven’t looked at the clothes yet. Now? How many sandwiches do you want?” He just blinked at me.

“When she’s done, Mr Santori has a man here to do photos for fake papers-”

“Why do we need fake papers?” I didn’t really give him a chance to explain.

“I’ll tell you both once Mr Santori’s man is done. Okay? Please?”

“Is it that serious?” Did I need to be scared?

“Yes. It is. Can you wait, please?” He looked so tired. It took him ages to eat one of the sandwiches I made. Maria came out and sat down at the table, too. She looked just at tired as he did. The shower seemed to have drained her rather than made her fell better.

“Your turn” he said. “Once Maria has had a sandwich, we’ll go and get her pictures done.”

“What? Why?” She sounded as confused as I felt.

“Don’t worry”, I said, “He promised to explain once the pictures are done.” I went in search of that pile of clothes, hoping the doctor or the mysterious Mr Santori were good at guessing sizes, Michael and I were very different in size. He was massive compared to me.

After stripping off my dirty clothes, I reached up to undo the chain and pendant that Merri had given me for our birthday, only to realise it was not around my neck. I missed it. I wanted something of hers.

When I finished my shower and dressed in clothes that almost fitted, I gathered up what I’d been wearing and few things I had with me. I had my wallet and what turned out to be a couple of gifts from friends, I didn’t realise I had put them in my pockets, they were still wrapped and all. In another pocket I found one of the memory cards for our Mom’s camera, she had asked me to drop it off at the shop to get pictures made up and pick it up afterwards, but I hadn’t had a chance to do that before Anthony destroyed my life, so at least I had some pictures left. There was no way I was leaving that behind.

I emptied my wallet of anything with a name on it, if we were getting fake papers I wouldn’t get to keep anything with my name on it, and headed outside to find the others and get my picture taken. I still didn’t know why we were having these pictures were taken. I had an idea but nothing definite.

Mr Greenly was standing near Maria’s chair, while this tiny little man fiddled with a camera on a tripod that was connected to a laptop computer and printer. They both pointed at another chair sitting in front of a drop cloth, the cloth was a grey/green/blue-mottled colour. There were three lights set up beside the camera and the little man made me put on different shirts and he turned on a different colour light, taking a picture with each change. A three-coloured background, four shirts and three light colours gives thirty-six pictures. D’uh. He printed these out and took the sheets with our pictures on them with him into a RV parked nearby. When he pulled the door shut behind him, we knew that we were being dismissed, that he didn’t need us any longer.

“My turn for a shower.” With that Mr Greenly walked back to the trailer. “You two had best come sit inside, it’ll be warmer.”

Like two well behaved students, we followed our teacher inside. We sat in the lounge area and while we waited and both ate another sandwich. When Mr Greenly came out, he sat down beside me and put his arm around me and held the other for Maria to slide under.

“Okay. Mr Santori’s information is freaky. I’ll start with Maria. Okay?” We both nodded. “Jimmy Bowen is blackmailing your father. Your father found your mother sleeping with his boss, but because he wouldn’t risk losing his job, he kept quiet. Jimmy decided that he could use that to his advantage. It’s thought that Jimmy is responsible to the disappearance of at least three other young women, but so far police don’t have enough evidence to either search his home or arrest him. Mr Santori’s informant, ‘T’, tells him that you and your mother had a falling out when you decided to go to college.” Maria nodded and Mr Greenly continued. “As a result of that, it appears that your mother has decided that it would be to her benefit to get you out of the picture completely. ‘T’ also said that, as you had been away at college for most of the last two years, you would only know Jimmy Bowen via your father. ‘T’ believes that your mother set you up with Jimmy knowing his history, so that when you turned up missing she could implicate your father, saying that he did it to get even with her for sleeping around. She doesn’t expect you to get away from Jimmy. Mr Santori doesn’t like your mother, she was known to him before she married your father and not in a good way, so he’s decided to see to it that you get to disappear. With us if you want it or on your own if you prefer.”

He paused there, rubbing Maria’s back while she cried. It was gut wrenching to watch her. She’d been betrayed and by her own mother. Just as I had been betrayed by my father. It made me wonder who had betrayed Mr Greenly. Someone had to have, for him to know people with machine guns, illicit doctors, fake papers and under-handed information. But who and why? What had happened to him?

“Don’t make a decision yet, either way, someone will help you. Now, Ricky. Mr Santori sent one of his sons to find out why your father is doing this. You didn’t mention that Anthony James is a U.S Marshall. Not that it really matters. There’s no easy answer. He’s had a few issues at work where colleagues aren’t happy about his conduct, but nothing new or dramatically different. The paramedics were at your mother’s place. Unfortunately, so were the coroners. The whole street has been cordoned off and only residents are being allowed in, so Mr Santori’s son couldn’t get much. Neighbours state that they heard at least five separate shots. Apparently this coincides with what you told me and I passed along to Mr Santori. Federal vehicles were driven into the property, so none of the neighbours were certain if your sister or mother left in ambulances or the coroners van. James is on the run and police are searching for him state-wide. The chatter on the police bands is he’s wanted for murder, but it’s not saying whose. It could be Merri’s, your Mom’s or it could be yours. There’s nothing about you being missing, either, but it’s obvious he’s hunting you. Now we need to decide what we’re going to do. Mr Santori believes our best chance to get you clear of your father and Maria safe from Jimmy and her mother is to head north, up into Canada. I think he’s right. Once you are both safe, we can then find out what happened to Merri and your mom. Both of you need to make that call, though. I can help, but you both need to pull it together and start making decisions.”

I looked at him, I felt like he and Maria were all I had left, maybe they were, if Anthony had killed Mom and Merri then I was alone. Mom didn’t speak to Uncle Athan often and I had no way of knowing how to reach him, not that I would, as I didn’t want Anthony to hurt him, same reason that I wouldn’t called Grandda either. So it seemed the best thing for me was to stay with Mr Greenly, as he knew about all sorts of underhanded things. He and Maria? I didn’t want them to leave me, without them I didn’t feel safe.

“You’ll help us? What sort of help? Where abouts in Canada? What about school? What will we do in Canada?” All I had were questions.

“First things, first. Do we split up?”

“NO!” Maria and I both sat up, yelling, we both grabbed and clutched him tight. We needed him. Without him we had no chance, he was our safety and we knew it. At least that’s how I felt.

“Okay, okay. Calm down. I’m not going anywhere, but that had to be your choice. So, our options are limited. We go as a family, yes, but who gets to be what? You two are too close in age to be mother and son and Ricky is both too young and too old to be anything else but someone’s brother and with you both having light hair and eyes, as well as being so slight in build, he resembles you far more than he does me. It’d be best for you to be siblings.” We nodded, that made sense and we were already beginning to be protective of each other.

“Okay. The next question is? Maria. Am I family friend, uncle or husband?”

I blinked, even I don’t move that fast when I set people up together. But really there could only be one answer to that.

“I… I think... I think I would like you to be my husband, but what about you? What would you like?” She was so sweet, so scared to say the wrong thing.

“Husband. Husband is better for me, too.” He was adamant about that, like there could be any doubt about how he felt about her, even after so short a time. “Mr Santori has another couple that he’s helping, he mentioned them to me because the man has similar colouring to you both, he thought that maybe we could all be a part of one larger family to start with. Once we are near the border, we would split into two groups and go our separate ways. Authorities will be looking for either individuals or couples, not a large-ish family group. I’ll iron out the details with Mr Santori shortly, but in the meantime we need to decide on new names. … Deciding is easy but remembering your new name will not be. Trust me on that. Jason Greenly is not the name I was given at birth.” It wasn’t?

“Please.” Maria interrupted him. “I can help with that. I was studying Hypnotherapy as part of my Psychology degree. Hypnotherapy can help us. I can plant a seed thought so that we are unable to respond to anything but our new-…. No, it needs to be a bit different. Let me think about that while you speak to the others.”

“Whoa. Okay. You work on that for later. But for right now I need to know what names you two want. Think carefully, because, once Mr Santori tells his man what to put on the papers, that will be your name, the only name we will use and hopefully the last name you have. Michael Chamberlin is the name I was born with and I think I will use it again. If you can help us to respond to our new names, that will be a huge help and a great relief, too. Trying to respond naturally to a new name is difficult, it has to be nearly subconscious.”

The name he was born with? What happened to him? Is this how he knew about Mr Santori? Fake papers? Maybe when we’re safe he would tell us.

“Marianne. I would like to be Marianne.” Said Maria. She looked at me.

“I think I want something simple. I think I want to be Thomas.” I looked to Mr Greenly- no to Michael for approval. He knew what my full name is- no, was. It was going to take some getting used to. I hoped that Maria- _Marianne_ , (dammit!), would be able to make it easier.

 _Michael_ looked at each of us in turn and nodded.

“You two work on the hypno-whatever thing and I’ll go talk to Mr Santori.”

We both nodded and as he left us, we looked at each other and I hoped that _Marianne_ had some ideas about what to do, because I didn’t.

It didn’t take very long for Marianne to work out how she was going to plant that seed thought, it took far longer for her to show me how to hypnotise her. All up it took probably 30 or 35 minutes for us to be reprogrammed. Roughly the way it worked was - if someone said Thomas, my ears heard Thomas, but my brain connected that to mean Ricky, that is - me. The other thing that Marianne planted was a compulsion to use our new names. Meaning that if there were strangers around, I would only be able to use our new names, my mouth would not, no, _could_ not say Maria or Mr Greenly, but instead used Marianne or Michael. Talk about messed up!

We waited for Michael and Mr Santori to come back with the other couple he was helping. It didn’t take Marianne very long to complete their reprogramming and add them to ours. Initially they were going to be Marianne’s and my parents, but only until we were out of the city and into Seattle, where we would split from them and head north, while they went southwest. Even so, we needed to know certain things about them just to reinforce the charade. He was Joe and he’d been an accountant for over 20 years, She was Mary-Jane and had always been a housewife. The reason for our family moving was me, I was a victim of gay-bashing and just about recovered, this would explain my arm in a sling and the bandages. The family has decided to go back out west and be closer to Mary-Jane’s parents. Marianne and Michael had recently married and as Michael had no other family he decided to move with our family rather than make Marianne choose between him and her family. Michael and Joe worked together and decided to start their own business after the move.

Easy, right? Now we just had to make it happen and not get caught by whoever, each of us on the run from someone different.

Once Joe and Mary-Jane were reprogrammed, we gathered together and talked until we felt reasonably comfortable with each other. Mr Santori provided us with a seven-seater mini-van and a small U-Haul trailer. He said that the trailer was packed with furniture and all the normal things people take when moving house, that if Joe and Mary-Jane wanted to, after we left them they could keep the trailer and furniture, or if not, to just leave it in a motel car park somewhere. They thanked him and took their hand luggage to the trunk of the van before getting into the front seats. He gave Michael some large envelopes and a small suitcase.

“Here’s your papers, I’m assuming that you will keep your original wallets, not needing new ones. The money will get you up and going for a bit, but you’ll have to do some shopping, I didn’t have time to get much in the way of clothes for each of you. You’ll need to stop at Nico’s on the way out, to choose jewellery, both for you and Marianne. I’m sorry that it had to come to this, Michael. If its any comfort to you, I don’t think that Luther will look for you under your real name and certainly not expect you to be married. I’ve made Thomas a Chamberlin and had adoption papers and a few legal documents added. This will provide evidence to support his story. Once your leave Joe and Mary-Jane, your story changes. Yes. Michael, you and Marianne have recently married, but as Marianne and Thomas have been living with distant relatives since their parents died nearly two years ago, you and Marianne applied to the courts to adopt Thomas. You felt he needed a strong family model and that the relatives weren’t providing that, this is the reason he has the same surname as you. It should give more credence to you as a family.”

He patted me on my uninjured shoulder, gave Marianne a hug and shook Michael’s hand.

“Good luck, my friend. Let me know where you are when you’ve settled and I’ll get more of your money to you.… You know how to do this, Michael, get in and make a place for yourselves. Jobs, schools, doctors, paper rounds, houses, you know the routine. The more cemented you are in a local community the less you stand out; the less people ask questions. Now, get moving. Time is wasting, my friend.” With that he turned and walked away, as he did I saw a wet glistening on his face.

He was crying!

“Goodbye, Giovanni.” Michael put his arms around each of us and nudged us towards the mini-van. We moved where he told us and climbed into the rear of the van. Marianne and I were on either side of Michael. Nothing was said by anyone for perhaps twenty minutes as we quietly headed across town. When we stopped in front of a high-end jewellery store, Joe spoke for the first time since we left the warehouse.

“We’re here. Michael? Can we come in with you? We were given some money and I’d like to get Mary-Jane and I rings. Something older styled.”

“I don’t see why not. Gio made sure that you knew to stop here.” We all climbed out of the mini-van and as we approached it the door opened silently.

“Michael.” The man who opened the door was tiny. Like even shorter than me. He had dark skin, and hair and eyes the colour of coal. And he was beautiful. Not handsome, but truly stunningly beautiful. If he’d been taller he would have been drop-dead gorgeous.

“Nico. Good to see you again. Nice place.” Michael responded for us.

“Thanks. Choose what you want. Zio Gio has it covered. He said you’d need rings, earrings, necklaces, watches and maybe a bracelet or two for the ladies and much the same for yourselves. You have the run of the store.” As he talked Nico was opening the display cases and cabinets.

“Call me when you made your selection.” He shuffled off through a door into an office and lay down on a sofa and went to sleep, seemingly, instantly.

We looked at each other for a few seconds before wandering over to check out the cases. Pale wood and rich velvet in different colours served to show off different coloured metal and stones artistically. Some of it was just as stunning as the storeowner and some of it was lovely and some just nice, but there weren’t any ordinary pieces to be seen. My Gypsy heritage made me appreciate the quality on show. Joe and Mary-Jane picked out a couple of classic-style wedding rings and some plain watches as well as pretty set of earrings and matching necklace. Michael and Marianne chose matching rings, platinum with white and champagne diamonds, as well as watches and a couple of pairs of earrings for Marianne. Once they were done, Michael came over to me and waved a hand at the cases.

“Anything you would like, Thomas?”

“Me? I get to choose something? Oh, wow. Okay. Um, yes, actually there is.” I’d seen a watch that drew me. I pointed to it and a pair of green diamond earrings, when Michael picked the earrings up out of the case I nodded. I don’t know why but those earring were calling me, looking at them most people would have just assumed that they were emerald but somehow I just knew that they were green diamond and I had to have them.

“Anyone else want anything? No? Sure? Last chance. Okay” After looking at each of us and us shaking our heads at him, he went to the office door and knocked to wake Nico.

“Got everything you want, then? Okay.” He took the tags and put each item that we weren’t wearing into velvet jewellery rolls. Michael handed one to Marianne and Nico gave the other to Joe. Michael and Joe shook Nico’s hand and we all thanked him as he locked the door behind us.

We stayed off the back roads as well as the main thoroughfares, picking instead smaller but busier roads, as we travelled towards the motorway. Even at this hour there was a reasonable amount of traffic on the road and we didn’t want to attract the attention of police. It took us a few stops and starts but we started to talk. Nothing important was raised, but soon enough we were no longer strangers to each other. We didn’t make any plans, not while we were still with Joe and Mary-Jane and neither did they. We kept it light and easy, chatting about movies, books, celebrities and current affairs, that sort of thing.

The story was that we were headed to Ridgefield, on the northern edge of Portland. Which was, strangely enough only a few miles north of a suburb named Vancouver, so if we stuffed up and someone overheard us talking about Vancouver we still seemed to be in character. The idea seemed to be that we would part company with Joe and Mary-Jane in Seattle, we didn’t know where they were headed and Michael was okay with that.

We settled in for a road-trip with strangers that weren’t strangers anymore. It didn’t take long before Marianne and Mary-Jane were asleep, Michael was nodding and I wasn’t far behind him. We slept and left Joe to do the driving for the first few hours.


	3. Chapter 3

Saturday, August 9, 2005 – Tuesday, August 12, 2005

 

 

Day was breaking as we approached Minneapolis; Michael talked it over with Joe and they decided that we would stop in Fargo, just over the border into North Dakota, getting a couple of motel rooms or a suite if possible, would enable us all to get some much needed sleep. Fortunately Novatel had family suites; they slept 6-8 people. I know that I didn’t sleep very well, waking often, thinking I heard gunshots or that Merri was screaming for me. I don’t think that any of the rest of them slept any better. When we stopped at MacDonald’s that evening for food, we were all slow and sleepy. By the time we had finished burgers, fries and in my case, soda, while the adults had numerous cups of coffee (yech), we were starting to function normally. We left there with extra drinks all round; Michael took over the driving, allowing Joe to rest and navigate. A quiet park was the next stop so that Mary-Jane could change the dressing on my arm and re-strap my shoulder. Then off we set again.

The evening was beautiful and the road had little traffic, which made for easy cruising. Every 2 hours we changed drivers, stopping for fuel and food, walking around and making sure we looked like any other family on the move. Twice over the next few days we were stopped by police, once near Bismarck ND, for a random licence check and the other, just west of Billings MT, to warn of two dangerous criminal fugitives on the loose, not to stop at a gas station unless there was a marked police vehicle present and to call 911 if we saw any cars stopped on the road. Only ten minutes later we did just that, a red SUV with a flat tyre and two people stuck in it. We stopped long enough for Joe to call 911 using the cell Mr Santori had given him and then we were gone, we hoped that they were gonna be okay.

Google estimated that the drive time from Chicago to Seattle was 30 hours, but the way we were stopping for breaks, it was going to be at least twice that again before we said goodbye to Joe and Mary-Jane. While we were heading west, our official story was that we were heading for Portland, but we planned to go into Seattle, if questioned Michael would grumble over a wrong turn that no-one wanted to admit to. Everything rode on us getting to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport without be stopped.

Every largish town we had travelled through enabled us to change money, we had done so at least a half dozen times, before I realised what Michael was doing. Once I had, I sat him down while the others ate and I explained how to get the money where we wanted it without having too much cash on hand. We purchased a travel visa card and deposited a small amount into it, to use as a control card. We purchased many larger cards and used these and internet access to transfer the balances to the control card, This way we were able to get rid of the actually cash, but still have immediate access to it. Lulu had used this as our primary money setup whenever we moved house.

Once we had the control cards Michael rang Mr Santori from a pay phone and gave him the details for him to transfer money into. We did this a number of times, ending up with both Maria and myself having two cards and Michael having four. The balances of each of these was nothing less than $500,000. Michael had listened to me and had purchased me a Blackberry and prepaid mobile internet access, so I was able to do the transfers while he and Joe drove, only needing one of the adults to go into gas outlets and buy a travel visa card for cash, we kept it small where possible, nothing over $5,000. It meant a lot of small purchases but that was the safest way to go.

I listened to Joe and Mary-Jane talking at one point, they were discussing money of course. They were stunned at the amount that Michael had with him in cash. Mr Santori had given them some fuel cards and some cash, but nowhere near what Michael had in the suitcase. They weren’t jealous or insulted, just surprised at the sheer amounts we were moving about, that Michael trusted me, a teenager, to handle; tens of thousands of dollars. When Michael and I took our turn in the bathroom of a gas station, I mentioned this to him and I wondered if we could help them. Michael said nothing at the time and I didn’t ask again. He purchased a prepaid cell-phone and asked me for the transfer details of one of the non-control cards, then he called Mr Santori, he gave the transfer details to Mr Santori and mentioned what I had said. He listened for a few minutes, said good-bye and hung up.

“Mr Santori tried to help them financially, but they kept refusing him, saying that he was already helping them by getting them new Id papers and transport out of the city. I asked for the non-control card details as he is going to transfer money into it and I can leave it with Joe, saying that is to cover their fuel. You give them the access details and then once we leave them, Mr Santori will do the transfer. We won’t be involved and they will have more money. Okay?”

“Thanks, Michael.” That was fine by me. Joe struck me as being the type to refuse to accept too much help.

 

We all piled back into the mini-van, this time, Joe pointed me to the front passenger seat after Michael got in the drivers side.

“Thomas, you can do the navigating. We need to stay on I90 once we leave Spokane.” He hesitated for a bit. “Also, Mary-Jane and I have some cash, not as much as the three of you, but more than I am comfortable with. Can we do the same as you and do the travel card thing?” He asked this as he opened the rear door and climbed in beside Mary-Jane and Marianne.

I looked at Michael and he nodded slightly.

“Sure we can.” I answered. “We will need to do some more stops for that, how many cards do you want to end up with and how much money will you be transferring?” Did I really want to know? Did he want me to know? Did he mind me knowing?

“I think we need four or five, at least two each. Mr Santori gave us a bag with cash, I put it straight in my suitcase, so I don’t know how much yet.”

The next midsized town was Coeur D’Alene, we were only about fifteen minutes away. If we stopped there, the four of them could do the initial purchases and still give me time to do all the transfers before we hit Seattle.

“Okay. When we get to Coeur D’Alene, the four of you can go in different directions for the control cards. We can get them at small friendly places, but the larger transferring cards need to be got at busy places, where you won’t be remembered. Whenever you see one of those large service centres, stop there, Michael.”

“Got it,” he responded.

Many more stops later and we decided that Spokane would be a early evening meal and that we would stop for the night at Ritzville, even though we were only a few hours away from Seattle. Ritzville was where the I90 split from R395. It was small enough that we weren’t certain any of the motels would have a family suite, but we were just lucky that The Cedars Inn did and there had been a cancellation, too. Joe checked us in while Michael moved the mini-van around near our suite.

Within minutes we had our overnight luggage in and Marianne suggested we do laundry as we had access to a washer-dryer. Mary-Jane rummaged through her and Joe’s luggage while Marianne went through ours.

We all froze when we heard a ring-tone. Michael pulled the prepaid cell-phone from his jacket pocket, looking at it with a wary face. Very slowly he pressed answer and held the phone to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Michael, it’s Gio Santori. Can you talk?”

We were all so relieved it was Mr Santori; Michael sagged back against the wall, Marianne sat down heavily on a chair, Joe and Mary-Jane collapsed onto one of the sofas and I? I slid down the wall.

“Yes, Gio. We’re good. What’s up?”

“You and Marianne...? Are you...? Can you…? Can you take a baby? I’ve been asked to re-home a six-month old boy. His mother waited until he was born before she signed the child over to the father and just left the country, his father works for my Seattle colleague. He’s married and only saw the girl once and his wife is very religious. He’s never seen the child, but he still wants a good home for him. It’s taken five months for this to come to our attention. Social services were called as the mother left the child once she’d found the boy’s father and just didn’t go back. They can’t track her as her passport is fake and so was the ID’s used on the birth certificate and the two don’t match. We’ve had a nurse locate and remove the child; foster services in Washington State are not that good for infants. Please, Michael, say you’ll take him?”

Wow! A baby, we’re gonna get baby?

Marianne and I looked to Michael, he didn’t even have to ask.

“Gio. Of course we’ll take the boy. Where do we go now? Obviously we can’t meet your people and the baby at the airport. So what’s our next step?”

“Where are you now, Michael?”

“We’ve stopped for the night at Ritzville. The Cedars Inn, on Smitty’s Boulevard. Why?”

“The nurse handed the child to a driver and he’s already headed west. I’ll call ahead and he’ll meet you somewhere. I’ll get back to you in a few minutes.” With that Mr Santori hung up.

Michael put the phone on the table beside him. Marianne and I moved towards him, we needed to be closer to him.

“A baby? Are you sure you want to take on a baby, Marianne?” Mary-Jane spoke quietly.

Marianne looked at me and then at Michael.

“Yes, we want him. We’ll be fine.” She nodded.

“It will work in with our background story well, too. We had better get showered. I don’t think that Marianne, Thomas and I will be here for that much longer. I’ll have first shower as it’ll probably take Gio a few minutes to get things sorted and get back to us.” With that he reached into his bag, grabbing clothes and walked towards the bathrooms.

I sidled closer to Marianne, I needed the comfort that she represented now.

“Right. Thomas, you get to answer the phone if it rings before Michael is out. Mary-Jane and I shouldn’t be involved in your plans. Uh? Where are you up to with our travel cards?”

I didn’t leave Maria’s side, but I did answer Joe.

“We kept five cards as control as well as a few hundred in cash. Everything else was transferred from larger cards to those controls. I didn’t keep track of the exact amounts, so you’ll have to go online for that later. Here are the online access details for each card. I’ve numbered the back of each card to match these details, just to make it clearer which is for which card.” I handed Joe the cards and the notes to go with them.

We heard the shower turn off at the same time as the phone rang again. This time we were ready for it. I picked it up and pressed OK to answer it.

“Hello. This is Thomas.” I said.

“Thomas, this is Gio Santori. I’ve spoken with the driver. He’s spent the day at Moses Lake, so he will take roughly an hour to get to Ritzville. He has organised for a pickup later tonight, so you will be able to take the car, too. It’s a rental, so drop it off at the airport. The driver will meet Michael in the car park of the golf course. He will be sitting on the hood of a dark blue Chevy Venture wagon. Michael will take the car and leave. The driver won’t be staying in town overnight, his ride will be meeting him, he wouldn’t say where and I don’t need to know. Once Michael has the car the three of you will need to check into a different motel. There’s a baby carrier, bottles, formula and other baby stuff in a bag ready. All you need to do is transfer your luggage over and you’re ready to go. Tell Michael that my Seattle friend has sent along extra money for the child, so you’ll need to do some changing cash again. I’m sorry, I didn’t know early enough or I’d have told them to get those travel cards Michael was telling me about, instead of sending cash. They are going to make handling money so much easier. Papers are with the child, in the name of Tobias Matthew Chamberlin, when I mentioned Michael, my Seattle friend went ahead with the papers. This is where you leave Joe and Mary-Jane. If Michael has any questions, get him to call me. Okay? Okay.” He was gone before Michael could get out of the bathroom.

“Well?” Michael was still towelling his hair dry.

“The driver will be in the car park of the golf course in an hour.” I was already opening a browser on the blackberry to locate the golf course. I showed him the map and where the motel was in relation to the golf course. “You take the car. There’s baby stuff in a bag and the baby in a carrier. Unfortunately there also more cash.”

Michael frowned at me.

“Hey, not my fault. Not Mr Santori’s either. He didn’t know about the money until now and would have got more travel cards if he had. Oh, yeah. There’s papers for the baby, too, under the name of Chamberlin.”

“Good. That will make things a little easier for us. We have an hour, you said?” I nodded. “Good. You two have your showers. Also Thomas, can you find us another motel? Preferably, one with self contained units. We’ll also need a baby-… Ah, baby bed, highchairs, that sort of thing.” Michael had no idea what sort of things we would need for a baby.

Did Marianne, I wondered? Kinda glad Merri and I did a lot of babysitting for pocket money on weekends.

Oh man, that hurt. Thinking about Merri. I missed her. It hit me so fast, I was crying, tears running down my face before I realised it. I started to shake, too.

“Thomas?” Marianne was on her knees in front of me.

“He’s in shock.” Said Michael. “It’s been a stressful couple of days.”

“I miss Merri.” Was all I was able to get out between sobs. Marianne pulled me to her and held me close. It only took a few minutes, but it drained me and left me feeling hollow, almost empty.

I sat on the floor with Marianne holding me for what seemed ages. Michael knelt in front of us with his hand on my good shoulder, rubbing gently. Marianne’s fingers sliding along my back and up into my hair, it felt good to be held like that. I wasn’t used to it, but it felt good. Time past while my new family comforted me, I didn’t take any notice of how long we sat holding each other.

“Um… I don’t want to be rude or anything, but its been almost an hour. Michael, you may need to get going if you’re going to meet this driver. And… Marianne, you and Thomas should have those showers. You may not get the chance once Michael gets back with that baby.”

I sniffed and looked up at Joe.

“Yeah. Michael, Marianne and I will have a wash and find a new hotel. One with baby friendly facilities. Um? Michael? We’re gonna leave Joe and Mary-Jane now, so what about the extra fuel? Can we leave the card we’ve been using for food and fuel with them? They weren’t expecting us to leave until tomorrow evening.”

“Oh. Yeah, we can do that. Gio said that the car is likely to be full and as it’s a rental it doesn’t really matter when we drop it off at the airport.” He took the card from his wallet and handed it to Joe, then, so Joe couldn’t hand it back, went to the door and opened it.

“I should only be ten or fifteen minutes, so you may want to hurry. I’ll flash the lights when I get back, so keep an eye out.” He was out the door and swallowed by the night so fast. I wanted to run after him, not let him out of my sight, in case he didn’t come back. My head knew he would be back, but my heart and body were scared of being alone. No, more alone. I’d never been alone, it was always me and Merri. Now, with no Merri, I needed someone else and he was it, he’d saved my life and I needed him to feel safe. I wondered if Marianne felt the same way?

Marianne and I looked at each other and climbed to our feet. We both reached for our bags and then I stopped, we needed to find that other hotel first. I pulled the blackberry out again, glad it was still going and searched hotels in Ritzville. I showed Maria the info I had found on hotels and had her call about vacancies and book a room. Once done, I headed for that shower. I needed to get warm, I felt cold inside. We’d just sorted out our luggage when headlights flashed in the windows of our room.

I thanked Joe and Mary-Jane for helping us and went to find Michael, Marianne right behind me. Joe and Mary-Jane were good people, but we needed our Michael. The wagon was dark blue like Mr Santori had said. Michael had the drivers door open, but had left the motor going.

“Lets go, you two.” Something had to have happened, he was so abrupt. Marianne gave me her and Michael’s bags and I shoved them in the trunk along with mine and climbed into the back seat. The baby was asleep in his carrier beside me. Marianne was in the front with Michael.

“We made a booking at another hotel here in town. If that’s okay?” Marianne had picked up on Michael’s attitude.

“Yeah. Where? Which direction do we go?” Yeah something had definitely happened for him to be so abrupt.

“We decided on Best Western. It’s only a couple of blocks from here, but it’s closer to the freeway.”

“Okay”

Nothing more was said until we got there and did the check-in. Once we were in our room, I felt strong enough to ask.

“Michael? What’s wrong? What happened?”

He looked at me and shook his head. When Marianne came in with the baby, I just took over. I got him settled, fed, changed and into the cradle the hotel provided. Michael would tell us when he was able to.

It took maybe another half an hour before Michael stopped pacing and lost that slightly hard-edged look. He sat on the big king-sized bed and beckoned us to him. Maria and I sat on each side of him, and he put an arm around each of us and took a deep breath.

“I knew the driver. I don’t know if he recognised me or not, but I knew him. He worked for my family, back before I had to run. He was our driver then too. Rhett was his name.” Oh, wow. “He was often given the job of taxiing Luther and I about. He was a good guy, you know. He was too good to be working for Luther. I liked him and we used to hang out while we waited for Luther. He didn’t think much of Luther, always thought Luther was a spoilt brat, and he was. I missed Rhett and his jokes when I ran.”

Oh. I had an idea, but it depended on whether or not he recognised Michael. I grabbed the cell phone and dialled Mr Santori.

“Thomas? What are you doing?” Michael reached for the cell, but I turned away from him at the same time as my call was answered.

“Michael? What’s wrong?” Mr Santori asked.

“Its Thomas. We may have a problem. We may not, too. The driver tonight. Michael recognised him. He used to work for Michael’s family before Michael ran. Can you find out if he recognised Michael. Michael’s not sure if he did or not.”

“Thomas? What? Are certain about the driver?”

I pressed the key for speaker and put the cell on the table between Michael and I.

“Yeah. Michael is, anyway.”

“My first thought when Michael said he recognised the driver, was, how can we use that. After thinking a bit more, I’m not sure we can. But we need to change our plans a little anyway. Now that we have Tobias, we are vulnerable. Not the way Michael thinks, though. Babies can have major problems flying, particularly if they are already stressed and upset. We need to think hard about flying with him. Depending on if the driver recognised Michael, we may want to change where and how we cross into Canada. I know we said we were going to fly from Seattle to Vancouver, but driving to Calgary is looking pretty good right about now.”

“Yes, it is.” Michael agreed with me. Marianne looked a little shell-shocked.

“If we head back east towards Spokane, we can go north to the Kingsgate border crossing. We can stop in Spokane and get rid of all this extra cash, too. Perhaps we should think about delaying our crossing for a bit. Maybe a few days or a week.”

I know Michael was speaking to Mr Santori, but I needed to be involved, too.

“No, Michael. No. We need to cross the border quickly, then, we can take our time. I like the idea of a week between the border and anywhere else though. Perhaps we could look at a camp-ground. Or even a national park and hiking. Tobias is big enough to go in an off-road stroller. Oh, we’re gonna need a stroller for him anyway. He’s too big to carry all the time.”

“Thomas? Where did you learn about babies? I understood that Lulu Western only had the twins?”

I know we weren’t supposed to talk about our other lives, but it was Mr Santori. If we could talk to anyone, it would be him. But I needed to put like it wasn’t me, like it was another person, otherwise it would hurt too much.

“Merri and her twin used to do a lot of babysitting. She was best with the school-age kids and Ricky was better with the babies and toddlers. Some families would hire both of the twins if they had older kids as well as babies. They really enjoyed it and were good at it. Ricky was thinking about doing pre-med and specialising in Paediatrics, while Merri was looking towards after hours care and junior school education.” Yes, that was okay, it was about them and not the me I was now. If that made sense?

“The twins are very handy at most things. Lulu’s Canadian born and the family would go to the grandfathers’ place, near Quebec, for the summer each year. Ricky learnt archery, knife throwing and axeman-ship. Oh, he also has studied martial arts since he was four years old. Last summer his Grandda taught the two of them orienteering and woods skills, like tracking, trapping, fishing, shooting and lots of other survival type things. The last thing was leaving each of them alone with only one of those knives that have a basic kit. You know the one, it has a couple of matches, a fishing line and hook as well as a compass. They were there for six days, by themselves. When Grandda went back, they had to have a basic shelter and as much food as they had already eaten. Merri did struggle for the first couple of days, she’s not used to fending for herself all that much, Ricky tended to do the hard stuff for her. He had no problems though, he’d even trapped himself a deer, so he had plenty of meat, but he did have a harder time finding veges. Grandda said the area Ricky set up camp wasn’t the best for plants.”

“Ah. That answers lots of questions.”

“Yeah. I had some thoughts about background history, too. Should we wait until we are into Canada to hash them out or should I tell you about them now?” Watching the news had given me all sorts of ideas, but I’d hammered them out in my head, until I was down to one working base and a few satellites.

“Hmm. If you’re looking to cross into Canada at a smaller checkpoint, maybe we had better look at a more detailed background. Especially now, that you have Tobias with you. Fire away, Thomas.”

“I only have one background, but I’ve been fleshing it out for the last few hours, more as a ‘What if?’ kind of thing.”

“Okay, Thomas. Keep going.” Michael sat at the table across from me, he had a note book and pen in front of him. Michael knew from being my teacher that my mind went in strange directions.

“Okay. It was the tornados last month down in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska that got me thinking. Lulu and her family had not long moved to Chicago from Broken Arrow, which is just southeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The area is familiar and there were some bad storms there this season. If we had been living in Owasso, northeast of Tulsa, there was a lot of damage there and many houses destroyed. It is close to a large industrial area, where Michael could have worked in any of a number of types of businesses. There’s also a good university there, University of Tulsa, they have a fine medical sciences department, too. The high school there in Owasso has some good advanced programmes, maybe not as good as Broken Arrow Senior High, but still much better than average. Tornados destroying many homes and businesses would explain why we are moving. And as Michael has paperwork as a Canadian citizen with US residency, if Maria, Tobias and I had dual citizenship, there wouldn’t be the issue of immigration, but more a returning to home soil. Also this would give a cover for Tobias, we could say his father was a storm-chaser. We’d be covered from many angles and as so many buildings were so badly damaged that many computer systems had major crashes, too. It shouldn’t be too difficult to hack the damaged systems and leave just enough information to support us without having enough to trigger someone, that they don’t remember us and they feel maybe they should.”

“Stop, Thomas. Stop.” Mr Santori was trying not to laugh at me, I could just tell.

“Gio. How fast can you get this done? It will mean changes to our current paperwork. Not big ones, in my case, but larger ones for Tobias, Thomas and Marianne.”

“Your still in Ritzville, yes? Okay, head for the Kingsgate crossing on R95. You might want to think about stopping in Spokane or Coeur D’Alene for a night or two. I’ll get the papers done as fast as I can and check on our driver, maybe try and get him come work for me? I should know how long it’ll take, in about an hour. I’ll get back to you then.”

“Wait! We should change vehicles, too. An RV, or 4x4 would be better if we are thinking about having time out. Please?” Michael was starting to think like me. Nice.

“Hmm. I’ll see what I can do, my friend.” With that he was gone.

Was I gonna be in the bad books for calling without clearing it with Michael? If it got the result I- _we_ needed, did it matter? Thinking on that, I nearly missed Michael’s comment.

“Good call, Thomas.”

“Yes, definitely the right call. Where do you come up with these ideas? First the travel cards, then the time out and now the backgrounds? Your mind is a strange place, young man.” Marianne was grinning at me like a proud big sister and it felt right. She _was_ my sister now.

“She’s right there.” Michael was laughing, too. “Enough, you two. We need to get some sleep. How about we get some hot chocolate and a light snack from room service while we wait for Gio to call back and then its bed for ALL of us. Yes?”

“Yes.” We both answered him.

Marianne had waffles, Michael got scrambled eggs and I ordered fruit toast, to go with our creamy hot chocolate. Yum!

When the cell rang, we were all feeling the effects of the day. While Michael answered it and put Mr Santori on speaker, I checked on Tobias and did another nappy change, so he’d be good until morning. I needed the sleep and I knew it!

“Michael. It’s going to take me a little longer than I’d wanted. Not for the papers, but for the RV. My Antonio, my grandson, do you remember him? Must be three years since you saw him last. Anyways. Tonio is living in San Francisco these days. He runs a second-hand RV and Trailer yard. He’s just got in a good-sized RV with a Toyota RAV4 on an A-frame trailer. He says it’s yours if you’re even. Do I want to know what he means? He’s got lady out there that is better with international papers than my man, so I’ve had your pictures sent through to him and he’s put her on them. Urgently. He said that he’d pick them up in the morning and be on route to you by 9am. I told him to check in to the Hampton Inn & Suites, Coeur D'Alene, on Riverstone Drive. He’ll be there some time after Wednesday night. There’ll be three adjoining rooms registered under San Quentin RV’s. Your name is down as a contact, Michael. You are booked Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Tonio will take the car and leave you the RV. Oh, yes, he also said to remind him to show you all the hidden compartments. One of his college friends had it customized for smuggling people over the Mexican border. Idiot never got to use it, he was losing almost everything in his divorce, so sold it to Tonio first. If you decide to sell it after a couple of weeks, call me and I’ll get Tonio to get in contact with you. Otherwise, trade it in up there. I’ll let you get some sleep. With a baby, you’re going to need it. Good luck my friend. Safe travels, Marianne. Take it easy, Thomas.” That was the last time we spoke to Mr Santori before we left the US.

I settled Tobias back in his cot, and then gave Marianne and Michael a hug. That bed was calling me and I had no intention of resisting. I was so tired. I fell asleep listening to Marianne and Michael talking.


	4. Chapter 4

Thursday, 14 August 2005

 

I leant beside Marianne on the rail of the balcony for our room and watched Tonio get into the rental car. He waved to us and said something to Michael, shook hands, closed the car door and backed out of the parking space. It would be nearly six years before I saw him again, more than seven for Michael and Marianne.

 

Today we crossed into Canada!

 

It was roughly a four-hour drive to Cranbrook, but as we were still unfamiliar with the RV, we planned on taking most of the day, maybe six or seven hours, more if we felt like it.

We packed up quietly and loaded our stuff into the RV. Now that we had Tobias, our stuff was mostly his. The last two days had made a huge difference in him. He was a happy friendly baby, now, no longer fretting and crying. More likely, he’d be babbling away or gnawing on a rice cracker. Or his fist, if he’d finished the cracker, one hand holding his monkey tight.

On my run yesterday morning, I had passed an all night gas station. They had a stand in the window with plush toys. I couldn’t help it. I bought Tobias a monkey with really long legs and tail. He didn’t let it go all day. I’d shake my head every time he brought it up to his face; it is the most awful electric blue colour. Who makes blue monkeys?

This morning on my run today, I bought a green elephant! Green! He liked it, though. When Michael commented on the monkey, I reminded him, that even if we had lost everything in the tornado, that was nearly a month ago and would certainly have got Tobias a few toys since then. We had Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry to go through before we got to the border crossing, so we needed to visit a thrift shop or two and pick up a couple of older things for him. The type of things that might have been kept at the nanny’s or babysitter’s place. A blanket, pillow, blocks and maybe a ball, that kind of stuff. We could put some of them in the RV’s small washer, immediately. They would all have to be washed before I would let him play with them.

Some of the hotel staff were there to wave us off. They had been told our cover story when we checked in on Tuesday afternoon and they had been sympathetic and very eager to help in any way. One of the night staff even brought Marianne some lovely pieces of embroidered linen, saying no young bride should ever have to go without a nice tablecloth. A groundskeeper’s wife sent her a slinky bit of nothing that got Marianne blushing bright red. We were given clothes, books, toys and all sorts of things, the staff were devastated that we had lost so much in such a short time. Management even gave me an old laptop, for games they said. It took me less than an hour to modify it and the blackberry so I could use it for internet use. The three of us felt like we were cheating them, by lying to them, but they just wanted to help.

Leaving the hotel we went north through Post Falls, towards the border. We stopped at thrift shops wherever we saw them, not getting much in each one, but by the time we left Sandpoint, we had enough for a couple of weeks worth of clothing for each of us. A little washer/dryer in the RV ran constantly for most of the day.

Once Sandpoint was behind us, it was an hour until we entered the Kaniksu National Park. There were just over 15 miles of beautiful scenery in the national park. I can’t help if I like open spaces and woodlands, it’s the Gypsy coming out in me, I know.

About a half mile from the crossing, I asked Michael if I could have a few minutes for a walk. I needed to say farewell to Ricky and his family. He readily agreed and pulled off the road onto a layby. There were a couple of bench seats and a trash can. I asked for 15-20min, to just walk. I took a compass, a jacket and a bottle of water. I knew I didn’t need anything else. I walked for maybe 10 minutes before I heard a voice off to my left. It sounded sad and confused. I told myself I couldn’t afford to risk Michael and Marianne by interfering, but I still crept closer. I held my breath, shocked by what I saw. There was a boy a little older but much larger than me, he was chained to a post. I could see his back and there were whip marks on it and not just one or two, but heaps of them and some of them were very fresh.

I turned and ran back to Michael and the RV, I needed help for this. I was breathless when I got back and it took me couple of minutes to get enough air to explain what I’d seen. I grabbed my bag scrabbled through it until I found the rolls of fabric that Tonio had given me. One had throwing knives and the other lock-picks in it. I also grabbed a spare pair of sweats, as the boy was naked. By the time I had these together, Michael had the backpack with the first-aid kit and was waiting for me.

Nothing was said as we ran. God, I was glad we both were distance runners. Michael stayed close behind me, but far enough that if I fell he could avoid falling too. Running with Michael was getting to be familiar. Just kinda glad it wasn’t a life-threatening run. Oh, wait, it was. Just not for us. It only took us a few minutes to get back to where I had seen the boy. He was still there, only this time there was a man with him. He was hitting the boy and yelling. We heard a phone ring and the man stormed off towards a house I hadn’t seen. Within seconds he was back.

“You got a reprieve, slave. But you know I’ll be back and when I do, that ass is mine. If I gotta feed and clothe you, slave, you can pay your way!” He stomped over to a car and sped out of the clearing. That’s when I got a look at the car and realized that it was a sheriff’s car. He was a cop and he was whipping a boy! Not if I can do anything about!

“Tonio. Do we have Tonio’s number? We can send the kid with him, can’t we?” I whispered.

“Yes, Thomas. We do and we can. Now, let’s go get him before that guy comes back.”

“He’s a Sheriff, Michael. If he’s been called out he should be an hour or so.”

“Sheriff? Crap. Let’s move, Thomas. You first, so he’s not so scared.”

“Right.”

With that I moved into the clearing, hoping that the boy could see me. Yeah, he could. The moment he did, he stared shaking his head and trying to speak. But he couldn’t, his mouth was gagged, there was no way he was able to say a word. I got to him quickly and pulled the gag from his mouth.

“No. No. No. You can’t stay, he’ll find you. Run. Please, go.”

“No. He’s not gonna get me and I’m not gonna let him have you either. Quiet.” He kept saying no, until I pulled out my fabric roll with the lock-picks. He looked at it and frowned. I showed it to him and went to work on the cuffs around his ankles. It only took me seconds to get them undone and be working on the wrist cuffs. After I undid the chains attached to the cuffs on his wrists, I took hold of his hand to turn it over. I was shocked by jump of electricity, I could actually feel the connection. He was Merri’s Heart!

What this meant to, us, him and me, I wasn’t sure, except that he was now going to be my brother, no matter what else happened he was going to stay with us, with me. I had watched my twin being shot and not knowing whether or not she was dead, there was no way I was letting this boy be taken away from me. If Merri _was_ alive, then today would be the day that she would meet my Heart. At least that’s way the family curse was supposed to work. But for now, he needed me and I needed him. I needed him to help balance me, ground me. The good thing about this was that in helping me balance, I would be helping him to balance, as well. Even now I could feel our link and feel it ease his fears.

Now that the boy was quiet and seemingly calm, Michael came out of the tree-line. There went any calm our connection had given the boy. He freaked!

“Whoa! Whoa! He’s with me! Hey! Hey! Stop, now! Easy there. Michael’s a good guy, he’s only helping me. This is my rescue. I’m calling the shots. He’s just along for backup. Okay?” Anything to calm him down!

It took time for the boy to begin listening to me again.

“He’s not gonna touch me?” He was literally shaking with fear.

“No. Not unless you say he can. Marianne will help with anything you don’t want me to do.” We had a couple of largish hidden compartments in the RV, we might be able to hide him long enough to get out of the area. Maybe not into Canada, but… We had to get him to the RV first.

Michael gave me dressings and stuff from the first aid kit to use on the boy’s back, before I helped him into the sweats and a jacket he had brought with us. We gave him some of the water and a couple of biscuits that Michael had put in his pocket. I hadn’t seen him do that, but I was glad he had.

“We need to get moving, Michael. Uh, what’s your name? I’m Thomas. Marianne and baby Tobias are back at the RV and we need to get you there, if we are gonna be able to help you. Okay?”

The boy looked at me for nearly a minute, before he responded.

“Sheriff only ever called me ‘slave’, but I used to be…, I think I used to be…Christian? Yes, Christian. It’s a long time since anyone called me Christian. I don’t remember the rest of my name.” Relief made him start crying.

“Shh… It’s okay.” We started in the direction we had come from.

“I, stop, stop! I... I... I forgot he has recording things. When he takes me into the house, he records all the time that I am there. He showed me a book, he said that the book has all the reasons that I must stay with him.”

“A book? Crap. Do you know where he keeps it? What does it look like?” Crap! Or not. Yes! I can use that! Use it to keep the sheriff away, keep him looking in the wrong direction.

“Yes. I know where it is. The house is only one room. There is a bathroom, but I am not allowed in there. He said, ‘the bathroom is only for people, not slaves’. He also has a computer that he keeps the things he records on.”

“One room makes much easier for me. Will you stay here with Michael, while I go get that stuff?”

“No! You can’t go in there. He’ll find you!”

“Stop! Okay, how about this. You stay with Michael outside the door and I go inside.”

“No. If you’re going in, so am I.”

“Thomas. If you’re going inside you with need to use plastic gloves on your hands and bags on your feet. He’s a Sheriff, so he’ll have access to law enforcement forensics.”

“Michael, you’re forgetting. He’s kept Christian chained up for who-knows how long. He’s not going to admit that someone came in a stole him. And as for the computer drives. He’ll have to tell what information he had on them. I don’t think that’s all that likely, do you? Besides, he puts my print in the police network, it’ll probably come up deceased, anyway.”

“Deceased? What does ‘deceased’ mean?” Christian was curious, but quiet.

“Hmm. True. I didn’t think about it that way. We’ll explain deceased and the rest later, Christian. Please?”

Christian nodded and we all went up to the house. It stood still and quiet. The door opened into the main room. When I looked around I could see the computer. That was my first target.

“Do you know where the book is? Can you get it for me?” I asked Christian. He was at the door, shaking again. If I gave him something to do, would he do it? Yep! He moved slowly across the room towards the bed.

The bed.

Oh, damn. I never thought to ask. The Sheriff had threatened to rape him, how many times had he already done that? Here I was asking Christian to go back into the house where those nightmares happened. So stupid, Thomas! But to keep him safe, I needed that book and the drives. Did the end justify the means? No. I couldn’t let him be hurt anymore, I could get the books if he told me where to look.

By the time I had decided to send him outside, he had two thick, heavy books in his hands. Okay, back to the original plan, then. We can still do this. I reached the computer and undid the side panel. My fingers weren’t able to feel as well wearing the plastic gloves from the first aid kit, but I was able to remove the two Hard Disc Drives from the tower, wrap them in towels and put them in the backpack. I then pulled a knife out from the fabric roll and used it to pry open the external enclosures, so I could remove the HDD’s from them. When we finished I had 7 HDDs and he had two books. I made sure to put the tower and enclosures back together, they needed to look untouched.

With Christian, it took us nearly 20 minutes to get back to the RV, mostly because he was barefoot. We might have been cold and wet, but I was glad it was raining and that there was more to come. It made tracking us all the more difficult. While we walked, he talked. He it told us about all the horrible things. He was so scared. All I wanted to do was help him, hold him. I was so protective of him. Just like with Marianne. Was this going to be what I was? Was I just going to help people now? How are we going to keep him safe? All I had was more questions. I didn’t know any answers. Not yet.

Finally we saw the RV through the trees. Marianne was waiting for us and had seen the Sheriff’s vehicle go past. We told her how we had found Christian and what was going to happen to him if we didn’t help him. Like us, she was adamant that we had to help him. It was just, how?

The first thing had to be to get him clean and warm. Then we could think about how. I showed him how to use the RV’s shower and as he was a lot taller than me, I stole some of Michael’s clothes, glad we had stopped at the thrift shops earlier in the day. While he showered, Marianne and I made sandwiches and heated some soup for him.

“The centre floor compartment.” It only took me a few seconds to follow Marianne’s comment. Obviously Michael didn’t at all.

“What?”

“Marianne’s thinking that we use the centre floor compartment to hide him, until we can get across the border. Then we can call Mr Santori. I need to go through those HDDs once we stop at a campground. In the mean time, they need to be hidden, too.”

“I thought we were going to send him with Tonio?” Michael sounded confused.

“No, not now. In case you didn’t catch it. This kid’s probably been raped and he’s definitely been beaten. We can’t send him anywhere with a man because he absolutely terrified of men. Even you, Michael. He’s only stayed because I’m here. I know it’s a big risk, but the only other option is going south. That’s too big a risk for the rest of us. I have a US marshal hunting me, and now he has a Sheriff that will be hunting him. Our only chance of safety is to cross the border. Once we are across the border, Mr Santori can help us with papers for him. I don’t know how long he’s been a prisoner there, but we are his only chance, Michael, and you know it. Everything rests on getting across the border. I think Marianne’s idea of putting him in the centre floor compartment is our best chance.”

“Okay. Let’s say that we do that. And we get across the border. Then what?”

“Then we start our new lives. The only difference will be that there are five of us, instead of the four that left Coeur D’Alene this morning.”

“Fine. You come up with the back story for him.”

“Already done. Your eldest brother died, years ago you said. Christian is his son.”

“Michael?” Marianne sounded strange. She had one of the books we had taken from the sheriff’s house in her hands.

“What?”

“What are your brother’s names?”

“What? Why?”

“Please?” She sounded strange.

“The eldest was Sebastian and other is Luther. Why?”

She turned the book around and showed us the page she had been reading. As we started to read, Michael began to swear and me to laugh. We were still doing both when Christian came out of the tiny bathroom. He looked at Michael swearing and sidled up to me.

“Is he angry?” He asked me, voice so quiet I just barely heard him.

“Yeah, but not at you. Marianne found something in one of the books, that’s what’s made him mad.”

“Oh. What is he going to do?”

Michael turned to Christian.

“Christian. We’re going to hide you and take you away from here to somewhere safe. The Sheriff’s book tells who your real parents are and why you were left you with him. Thomas here thought that we could tell people that you are my eldest brother’s son. The books say you ARE my eldest brother’s son. My younger brother had you stolen and given to the sheriff years ago. You are my nephew. My nephew, and I never knew about you. Luther has a lot to answer for!”

“Luther? I know him. He comes out to the house every year. Sheriff says I have to pretend that Sheriff is kind to me and that I like being there, when Luther comes. He doesn’t beat me or hurt for a week so I don’t have any bruises, that’s how I know Luther is coming. I like him. He brings me things, sometimes candy, sometimes clothes, and always toys. Sheriff lets me have them until Luther leaves, then takes them away. Its only time I get people food, the rest of the time I got slave food.”

“Oh, God. The monster!” Marianne looked like she wanted to go find the Sheriff just to tear him to pieces. Vicious girl! I knew I liked her!

“Luther was good to you?” Michael looked shocked.

“Yeah. He was nice. I kept hoping that he would take me with him when he left but he never did. I was always sad to see him go.”

I put my arm around him. He sounded so lost, so sad. Almost broken.

“Luther is nicer than the Sheriff. Yes?” He nodded. “Michael is nicer than Luther.” I said to him.

“Nicer than Luther? Are you sure?” This time I nodded. I arbitrarily decided he should know the truth and not just our cover stories.

“I’m sure. Michael saved my life and Marianne’s. My birth father shot the rest of my family and killed them and was hunting me. Marianne’s mother gave her to a man who rapes and tortures women.”

“THOMAS!”

“No, Michael. He’s real family. He needs to know.” Christian flinched away when Michael yelled and tried to hide behind me.

Michael turned and put his hands on the bench.

“We need to talk about this, but we don’t have time now. Christian? Will you come with us? Be a part of our family? If you don’t want to, I can try and get you to Luther, but I can’t guarantee it. Marianne is right. Your best chance of freedom and a new life is with us, but it has to be your choice.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Michael is all about you making your own choices.

Christian looked at each of us for a few seconds.

“You won’t give me back to Sheriff?”

“Never!” We all spoke at the same time.

“Okay. What do I have to do?”

We showed him the hidden compartment and how to get into it. I put the HDD’s in yet another compartment. Our timing was perfect, because, just as we got him out, the Sheriff’s car pulled up along side us.

“Quickly. He’s here and you have to get in again. Now. We won’t let him take you. I promise.” I hurried Christian into the floor compartment, then looked at Michael.

“I’m afraid of police because I was gay-bashed by police in Tulsa just before the tornado. Got it? We need to keep him distracted.” I said to Michael and Marianne.

They nodded.

The Sheriff got out of his car and towards the RV.

“Hey there.” He called out.

“Aargh!” I squealed and pushed behind Marianne and Michael.

“What the-?”

“Sorry, sir. He’s had a bad experience with some thugs with badges.”

“What?! Did you report it?”

“Yes, sir. The higher ups said, his word against theirs. A gay troublemaker or two upstanding officers, who’s a judge going to believe?”

“Troublemaker my ass! Thomas is a good kid!” That was Marianne, trying to protect me.

“I know, honey, I know. Just repeating what we were told. Sorry, sir. It’s been a rough six weeks.” Michael sighed.

“Rough? Oh, come on now. It can’t be all that bad.”

“Yeah, it can. First this thing with Thomas and the local police. Last month a tornado wipes out the company I work for, and then we find out that the brother and sister-in-law and three of their four kids where also hit. Brother was a storm chaser, and he took his wife and three older kids out to see what he does, they never came back. We were left their youngest, Tobias. Just a week later, another tornado, it took our house this time. Left us with nothing, but we had on. Friends lent us the RV, when we decided head back up to Canada. Yeah, its been that bad.” Michael started shaking like he was gonna start crying, even though I knew he trying not to laugh.

“Ah. Seems you might be right, then… So... ah… Heading up to Canada, huh?”

“Going home, sir. I’m born and bred. Marianne and Thomas are dual cits. We just had enough, hey? This last year has been one thing after another.”

“There’s more?”

“Yeah. Not so drastic, or in such a short time, but yeah. Marianne and I got married then her and Thomas’s parents died. There was a nasty fight for custody with their aunt and uncle. They only wanted the trust fund. In the end, we gave it to them just to get them to go away. I don’t need it and now, neither do Marianne or Thomas. Had to move from Phoenix to Tulsa for the courts to even consider us, though. On top of everything else. We just had enough, yeah? Headed back to Calgary, I’ve got a friend with a job waiting for me. They’ve picked up papers for Marianne for college, as well as high schools for Thomas. Without them I think it might have been just too much, we might not have taken the chance, just moved elsewhere. But Thomas loves the open spaces and there’s not a lot of that that’s gay friendly. You know?” Michael made it sound so real.

“Yeah. Pretty rough. You headed up now? Got your papers ready? I’ll take you up, have a word with the guards, see if we can get you through quicker. How’s that sound?”

Even to me, that sounded like heaven.

“Yeah? Thanks, sir. That would be real helpful. Shall we follow you? I think Thomas is gonna climb out the window, if we hang about talking much longer.” Not to mention Christian, laying in a stuffy under-floor hidey-hole.

“He’s getting better, but it’s gonna be a long haul before he’s comfortable around police, they did so much more than just the physical damage.” Marianne sounded like a professional.

“Yeah, you follow me. I’ll call ahead and get someone ready, so you won’t have to wait long.” He said this as he climbed back into his car.

Michael got in the drivers seat and got the RV moving behind the Sheriff’s car. I sat on the floor and talked to Christian. I told him all of my story and how I had come to be here. I stopped as we pulled up at the checkpoint, but stayed where I was, until Michael warned me the guards where coming. I cautioned Christian and reminded him to stay quiet. Quickly I got back in the seat beside Tobias.

 

The guards spoke to the Sheriff for a few minutes before asking Michael for our papers and the RV’s papers. He handed them over without comment, trying to look sad and depressed, not scared and anxious. Whatever. Seemed to work, anyway. They only gave the RV a cursory lookover. Our papers were brought back, quickly and we were given the okay to drive through. Thirty seconds later we were through and headed north again. I waited and waited, but no one stopped us or called us back. It didn’t seem possible, but we had made it.

We were in Canada!

Finally!

With Christian still hidden!

I watched until the checkpoint was out of sight before I opened the under-floor compartment where Christian was hiding. I intended to give him a hand to get out, but he was asleep. He trusted us enough to sleep! Even though the threat of the Sheriff and the border guards was hanging over us. He looked so peaceful, almost happy, so the decision to let him sleep was easy.

Instead of waking him I rummaged around in the techno-draw that Tonio had pointed out to me earlier. I was hoping for … Yes! I pulled out the power supply and connections for a HDD external enclosure. Now that I had that, I could work on hacking the HDD’s we took from the sheriff’s place. I got set up on the little table in the living area. It only took me a few minutes to work out and bypass the level of security on each HDD, as it was pretty basic. Only one HDD had a decent strength security and even it was poor in comparison to what I insisted on. The only good thing about what I found was that Christian had not been raped. Thank God! Tortured, beaten, drugged, but not raped! There were over a hundred video files, along with many still images. They were horrid. Just revolting. The man was a monster, Marianne was right about that.

To distract my self from those images, I went to work rewriting the security program I had designed for Ricky’s computer. Obviously I lost track of time, because the next thing I knew, we were stopped and Christian was shaking my arm.

“Thomas? There’s something wrong with Michael. Marianne asked me to get you.”

I shook my head and turned where he pointed. Marianne was kneeling on the bench seat behind Michael, holding him. He was shaking and crying, sobbing, one of Christian’s books in his hands. I approached carefully. Was he angry? He looked up at me and the gut-wrenching sadness was clear on his face. What had he read? He grabbed me with one arm and pulled me to his chest. Blindly the other arm reached out and found Christian and he was also pulled close to Michael. Christian was stiff and rigid for nearly a minute before he slumped and held onto Michael and I tightly. Marianne adjusted her grip on Michael to include Christian and I.

We stayed like that for a few minutes before Michael shoved me away and pushed the book at me.

“Read it. Then can you call Gio, please? I can’t deal with it. I… I’ve been running from the wrong man. Afraid of the wrong man. It’s not Luther at all. Please, Thomas, can you do it?” The trust in his voice shook me to the core. It didn’t matter what it was, if Michael wanted me to deal with it, I would. No matter what it was.

“Yeah. Of course I can. I’ll quickly read this. You stay with Maria and Christian, yeah?” It didn’t seem to matter that I was only 15, a kid. He wanted me to deal with it. And I would. For him.

I got up, not letting go of the book. Whatever was in this book, it was serious stuff to upset Michael so badly.

Sitting myself back at the table, I opened the book and quickly started to read. Didn’t take me long to see what had upset Michael. Taking a half hour to think before I rang Mr Santori, I gave some thought as to what we did next. This book changed everything for Michael. Everything.

Mr Santori answered on the second buzz.

“Santori.”

“Hi Mr Santori, it’s Thomas.”

“Thomas. Where are you? Have you crossed the border yet?” The smile in his voice was clear. He was happy. I was gonna change that, but this had to happen.

“Yep. We’re in Cranbrook at a campground. We’ve had another addition to the family and he’s gonna need papers, too. But that’s not why I’m calling. Well. Not really anyway. I know I should start at the beginning, but I need to put it in order. So, here goes.”

With that I told him about me finding Christian and how Michael and I rescued him, about the books and HDD’s. But not about what was in the books. I’d get to that soon enough.

He was just about as angry as Michael. Marianne was angrier than either of them, but that still wasn’t anywhere near how mad I was. Mr Santori had to take a minute or two to get himself back in control before I continued.

“Michael has spent the last hour or so going through the books we took. What he found has upset him. Badly. He asked me to read that book and then to call you about it.” I was hedging and I knew it, but how was I supposed to tell him after everything he had done for Michael?

“Thomas. You’re obviously trying to say it without upsetting me, but I’m already upset, so just say it!”

“Okay. Here goes nothing! Luther’s not the bad guy.” I hurried to explain. “He’s got this guy working for him. Angelo Marciano. Marciano is the bad guy. He had his men sabotage Steven and Melissa Chamberlin’s plane. He wanted control of the company and he was prepared to do anything to get it. Even murder. He kidnapped Sebastian’s girlfriend, Julia, just days before she and Sebastian were to get married. Marciano waited until the day before the wedding was to happen and he started to threaten Sebastian that if he didn’t do what Marciano wanted, then Marciano would see that Julia was beaten, raped and tortured. He didn’t care what it took.” I took a deep breath and continued.

“Sebastian asked Luther for help getting her back. Marciano didn’t think Sebastian would try to get her back in person, he thought Sebastian would send a security team in. He was wrong. His people were ready for professionals, but what they got was Sebastian and Luther. Very angry. Sebastian went to get to Julia, while Luther dealt with Marciano’s security team and raided the security office to get proof that Marciano was responsible for their parent’s crash. Marciano realized that he wasn’t going to be able to stop Sebastian, so he drugged Julia, took her ten-year-old son and he threw the boy down the garbage chute. Luther heard him crying and followed the sounds until he found the boy. Sebastian thought Julia was dead and went after Marciano.” I could hear Mr Santori’s gasp.

“Marciano set a trap for Sebastian, catching him and leaving him when he set the building on fire. Marciano thought the child was killed in the fire, just like Sebastian and Julia, that no-one got out alive. Marciano walked away with minor burns and the fire department’s award for trying to rescue Sebastian and Julia. He said that their parent’s crash had devastated Sebastian and unbalanced him. He implied that all three boys were suffering mentally as a result of the death of their parents.

While he was doing the hero shit, Luther was hiding the boy, he ended up sending the boy with a driver of one of his friends, he intended it to be only short-term, but Marciano was changing that with his accusations.” Another breathe.

“At the same time as this was happening, Marciano’s security teams were on their way to the family house. Their job was to kidnap Michael for their boss. Michael thought they were Luther’s men, and apparently so did Luther, but they weren’t. They always answered to Marciano first, then, and only if it suited Marciano to have them do so, did they ever answer to Luther.

Marciano wanted control and he was going to use Michael against Luther to keep Luther under control. The rest of Michael’s story you know.”

“Thomas, what you’re suggesting is impossible!”

“No Mr Santori, it’s not. Thanks to Luther raiding Marciano’s personal security files and keeping copies of all he found on a hard-drive and enclosing it within a book, which is now in front of me, I have proof. Enough proof to take to a court, maybe even the High Court. That kinda depends on how far we are prepared to go. Video and voice recordings, written orders and incident reports. Marciano was blackmailing a lot of people and he kept information, data and recordings, video where possible, all on his personal computer. Which Luther hacked. En mass. I now have the name of every person or business he was blackmailing back then, along with the security footage from his office. Everything was recorded. The only thing Luther didn’t do, was delete Marciano’s computer. Which is good or Marciano would know that Luther had all that information, and nothing would keep Luther alive at that point.”

“Oh, God! What do we do now? I mean… What do we do about this?” Mr Santori was so stunned he could barely speak.

“I thought about it for a bit and what we need to do is find both of them and get Luther away from Marciano. Make it so the police HAVE to take action against Marciano. The only way to do that it to send some of the info I have to the police _and_ to the media. I’m thinking Fox News, NBC, ABC, ESPN and CNN. I do plan to keep just enough back to blackmail Marciano into taking the fall, I don’t care how he spins it, but he will plead guilty or I will happily dish the rest out and its bad enough to get him dead. He knows it, too. That’s the easy bit.” I took a deep breath and continued.

“We have to make sure that Marciano can’t touch or talk to Luther. Preferably pick Marciano up first then Luther, or if not, at least separate vehicles. Then can you set up a SKYPE system? I know it’s new but it will enable us to talk to Marciano and Luther via a computer with video feed. I need to talk to Marciano first, then Luther. Can you organise for Marciano to be held in an abandoned warehouse, preferably one he owns. He is to be blindfolded, tied hand and foot as well as headphones taped to him. I want him to be in as complete a sensory deprivation as we can manage.

I can do a subroutine on emails so that I know what time the emails are read and the files opened, and another to ensure that they cannot be deleted. At least 6 hours after the files are opened at the networks, we give them, not the police, the tip-off on where to find him. Once that’s done, all the networks and the cops will be hunting him. Do you have guys you trust that can move him?”

“Yeah, Thomas. I got two sons and three nephews that will do the job. Ah, Thomas?” Mr Santori had it together again, thank God.

“Yes, Mr Santori?

“First. Enough with the Mr Santori crap. You call me Gio, just like Michael does. I think you are much more sneaky and Machiavellian than Michael could _ever_ be. Second. Sensory deprivation, huh? What about one of those tank things? Would that be better than tying him up? I know where to get one.”

“Yes! Excellent idea, Mr- ah... Gio. Once he’s been moved I’ll need to SKYPE with Luther, I know he doesn’t know me, but he will soon enough. While this is all coming together, changes need to happen to our paperwork. In Michael’s case not so big, but we need to change all the previous documents into his real name, we want it to look like he was never hiding, but instead their parents’ death devastated him and prompted him into leaving the city. All the places he went, all the jobs he had, get them into his real name. Meeting Marianne and marrying her, etc. The changes to Marianne’s and my paperwork is a little more involved. We can’t do the living with family after our parent’s died, we have to have been on our own when Marianne met Michael.”

“Got it, I think.”

“I’ll send through some notes, Gio. Will that make it easier?”

“Please. Okay, next?”

“Next is Julia’s child. Christian, kid we rescued today. He’s Julia’s son. He’s also Sebastian’s, too. Marciano managed to buy off her parents when she and Sebastian had been dating before, when she got pregnant. Once her parents died and she knew what happened she got in touch with Sebastian again and told him he had a son. Change his birth to a week earlier and make him born in Oklahoma City region. Get him lost in the Oklahoma foster system, after the fire. Have him attending the same school as me in Owasso. We’ll make it so that roughly a month before Michael and Maria finalized my adoption, they applied to foster Christian and 2 months later they applied to adopt him, too. This would have his adoption finalized less than a month before the first tornado hit us. Can you make it happen?”

“What about Canadian citizenship?” Asked Gio.

“Julia was Canadian, she had residency for the US. Same as all the Chamberlin brothers. So Christian should have her Canadian citizenship but also US because he was born there. Anything else I may have missed?” I couldn’t think of anything, but Gio had been doing this for longer than either Michael or I have been alive, maybe put together.

“No, Thomas. I can work with this. If anything comes up I can call. It’s going to take a few hours to get Marciano and Luther here. I’ll need a couple of pictures of Christian for his papers, I’ll get a rush on them. Tonio’s lady is here visiting family, so I maybe able to get her in on this. Text me your SKYPE address and I’ll get back to you a few minutes before Marciano and Luther arrive here.”

“Thanks”

“If you’re right about this, there’s going to be some massive changes and possibly a police investigation. Are you ready for that?”

“It won’t affect us. Michael left New York when this happened. Actually that’s a good idea, when you change his papers, make it that he left New York _before_ the parent’s accident, maybe a week or two. Puts him completely out of the picture.”

“Hmm. That just might work. Thanks Thomas.” I disconnected the call and went back to the others.

“Michael, I need Christian to come with me.”

“Why?” Christian was tucked up beside Michael, looking very comfortable and slightly sleepy.

“We need to trim your hair and get some pictures of you for ID papers. Okay?”

“Oh, okay. What do I do?” He was so trusting I could have told him anything.

“Come sit outside, we’ll get Marianne to tidy up your hair. I’ll get the camera and a drop cloth set up, so all we do then is take a few pictures and send them to Gio.” We needed to take him to a proper salon.

Should I make a list?

Marianne scrabbled through the drawers until she found a pair of scissors and a comb, then she and Christian went outside. Michael took a camp chair out to them, for Christian to sit in. In the few minutes it took her to trim and tidy his hair, I got a few of Michael’s shirts out. Then found the drop cloth and set up a makeshift photographic studio. I was trying to do the same thing that Gio’s funny little man had, back in the warehouse on Friday night. So much had happened since then, but it was less than a week ago.

When Christian came in, he was giggling. Giggling! How different he was from the sad, scared boy we had rescued, was it really just a few hours ago? What a difference trust makes.

“Hey. Put this shirt on and sit down, okay? What’s so funny?” He took the shirt and slipped it on over his head. He really needed clothes of his own.

Add that to the list.

“Marianne told Michael he needs a haircut, too and to sit down. He is trying to talk her out of it. I don’t think he will.”

“Oh, boy. Not a chance. She is one stubborn woman.” I took the first set of pictures and handed him another shirt, explaining about the coloured cellophane around the light and the different shirts.

“That’s so clever.” The simplest things interested him, but his mind was so quick. He was very smart, maybe even as smart as I was. It was going to take time to educate him, though. The Sheriff had kept him ignorant of anything, be it reading, writing, computers or just day-to-day living. He had no idea how to tie his shoelaces, how to do up the fly on a pair of pants, how to brush his teeth. Hmm.

A trip to the dentist was put on the list of things to do. That list in my mind was getting longer every time I turned around.

When I finished the pictures, I showed Christian how I emailed them to Gio, along with the notes and a few of the files. It was mainly to keep him involved, but also so that I made sure that I did actually send them, they were so awful I just wanted to delete them.

Michael and Marianne came in, Michael still muttering about haircuts and Marianne just shaking her head at him. Marianne and I started pulling things from the cupboards and the fridge, so I could make dinner.

Even in the few days we’d had together, Michael and I had learnt not to let Marianne loose in the kitchen, not if we wanted something edible at the other end. If Christian was anything like me, he would be starving…oh, God. Given what he’d had to eat before we took him, of course he would be starving and not just for a tasty meal, but for _any_ meal. Marianne had gone across to the campground store and bought steaks, potatoes and some other vegetables for us for dinner. It was up to Michael to do the grilling and me to do veges. I hoped Christian liked vegetables, I did and that meant that we would get some at all meals, including breakfast.

Steaks with mashed potatoes, salad, stir-fried vegetables and a loaf of crusty bread. Freshly squeezed juice and the makings of s’mores. A celebration of freedom. The five of us sat at the tiny table in the RV with Tobias in a fold-up highchair and gnawing on a rusk, while the rest of us feasted. We were revelling in our new family and our freedom.

There was nothing else we could do until Gio called us back, but wait.

And wait.

And wait.


	5. Chapter 5

Thursday, August 14, 2003

 

It was just after 10pm when Gio finally called. I was ready and waiting, Michael at my side. I wasn’t certain Michael should be there, but he needed to see Gio. I hit the buttons on the laptop to accept the call and suddenly Gio was there, sitting in a rundown office. The windows behind him were grimy and showed only darkness. It wasn’t a neat or tidy place, and it didn’t suit Gio at all.

“Michael, Thomas, we’re ready to start. You need to stay out of the way, my friend, Marciano cannot see you. Not if we want this to work. Also the updated papers are done. Tonio arrives here in about 3 or 4 hours and he’ll pick them up on his way back to the airport. He’s flying into Calgary at 11.15am. You’ll need to meet him. He’s going to give you the papers and drive the RV back here. You should rent a hire car at the airport or buy one before then. Now… I need Thomas to take the laptop away from you and the others.” Gio seemed to need to get it all out in one breath.

“Gio. Nice timing. The RV has been set up for the night, so Marianne, Tobias, Christian and myself are going to have hot chocolate and s’mores outside, seeing as we found the campfire brazier. We won’t come in until he’s finished with Marciano.” He smiled at Gio, put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed as he turned towards the door.

“Good. Good. Thomas. I’m ready here, Marciano is being held down stairs. He’s tied up just the way you wanted him to be, but not blindfolded. Right in front of him is the open float tank and he’s not been told why it’s there. Let him stew. The rest of the warehouse is dark, the tank is the only thing he can see, besides the computer hooked up to the TV. I’ve got one of my boys to set up the SKYPE session so I don’t need to go down there. When you’re finished with him, I’ll turn all the lights off, so he can’t see anything at all. My boys all have night vision goggles. I’m ready to start whenever you are.”

I waited until the door shut behind Michael.

“Okay, I’m good, Gio. Put me on screen.”

Angelo Marciano was short and fat, kinda like the slug creature from Star Wars. I just watched him for a minute or so. When he started to make noises through the gag, I spoke.

“Angelo Gabriele Marciano. Murderer, blackmailer, kidnapper and extortionist. I think that describes you quite well. So would, fat, evil, money-hungry slug. You can’t speak so don’t bother trying. My friend, play the first file, please.”

A small window popped up on the screen and with it came the view of Marciano’s office and him talking to three other men. He was telling them to do whatever they needed to do the see to it that Steven and Melissa Chamberlin’s plane went down with no survivors. The next file had two more men being told to kidnap Sebastian’s girlfriend, Julia. The next; three men being told where to find Michael and what to do with him. The next; Luther was being told that Michael’s life depended on Luther playing his part well. There were many more, with other people being told that if they wanted their dirty secrets kept then they would do what Marciano wanted. Marciano got progressively paler with each file played. It didn’t take long for sweat to start beading across his forehead, slowly beginning to run down his face.

“I don’t need to play you anymore do I? You know what they all contain and now you know I have them. _All_ of them. If you do as you’re told, the police will only get a few of them, but if you fight me, I’ll see to it that they _and_ the media get a much larger collection. Because you’re going to pay for what you’ve done, for the people you’ve killed, the ones you’ve hurt and those left without answers.

And here’s the kicker. I’m dead. Yes, that’s what I said. Dead. Nothing to do with you, but when I was alive, I was descended from a Romany Gypsy Queen, one who specialized in curses. That ability has been handed down through the generations. And you’re about to be on the receiving end of her gift.”

 

Nothing scared people more than voodoo-hoodoo and curses and he was about to find out just how real they could be.

I placed the candle, bowl of water, the lump of clay and the knife on the table in front of me, to form a triangle with the knife in the centre.

I prudently took a few seconds to picture in my mind what I wanted to happen. Taking a deep breath, I started the chants learnt as little more than a toddler.

 

 

As I am cursed, so do I curse

The gift of truth til death

Lies you will be unable to tell

Your fate from here to last drawn breath

 

This curse to you is gifted

No lies to others may be told

Nothing you say may be false,

A future of truth becomes your gold

 

As I am cursed, so do I curse

I say to the world at large

May you learn from this,

Of your own fate you are in charge

 

May the stars hear my voice

May the wind hear my breath

May the fates decide

If this fate be yours til death.

 

Marciano grew even paler and started sweating. I knew what he was scared of, to be honest I was a little scared too. I’d never done this before, not completely, anyway.

He could see me and I was glowing, with something like sheet lightening, kinda like a plasma ball glowing from within. Yes, I know special effects could do that too, but not even special effects could make the lightening come out of the screen and reach towards him. Blue, red, yellow and purple lightening jumped from my fingers, back-lighting the knife and creating strange shadows. My eyes changed, they went from light hazel to a brilliant, almost iridescent green. Lightening danced and twirled around my hands, the knife in front of me rising and dipping over each of the items on the table. It stabbed into the clay, leaving smears of dirt on the blade as it came free. It sliced through the candle’s flame, giving of the stench of burnt earth, before bobbing into the bowl of water, leaving dirty brown streaks as it rose in front of me. It twisted and swayed, level with my eyes. The light reflected from its surface caused the shadows to change, to deepen and lighten randomly.

With flairs of light and a blink of complete darkness the knife vanished, only to reappear in front of Marciano in the warehouse. He blanched and screamed behind the gag, trying to twist and get away from a knife that appeared out of nothing less than an inch away from his nose. I was kinda glad I was recording the session. Both incoming and outgoing video. It would be cool to watch later.

Curses are magic at it’s most basic and the blade was now bound to him and he would never be free of it unless he honestly tried to restore his integrity. Most people find magic amusing and some find it fascinating, until they see it first hand, until it’s real; then they panic, just as he was doing. Yeah, it was freaky and that was the whole idea. Curses aren’t nice things, they are nasty and if not done correctly can be evil and life threatening. Ricky’s family were all taught early on that curses are real and must be carefully placed. Hence you always give the receivers a chance to redeem themselves, in the past there have been some who have learnt. Not many, but some.

“From here you will be taken to another place, you will be put in the float tank you see in front of you and you will remain in it until the police find you. That could be anything up to 12 hours from now. You will have only your conscience to keep you company. Once you have been found, you will tell nothing but the truth. Always the truth. You will not try to get out of any lies you have already said. You will plead guilty to all crimes you have committed. If it any time you try to get out of these, remember, I have all your files. _All_ of them. You know better than I, just what can be found in those files. I don’t need to tell you. The knife will remain bound to you until you either learn honesty or die, whichever comes first, but you will never escape it, never, and no-one else will be able to see it, ever. Your time is up. And now my friend, it is time Marciano left us.” That last comment was to Gio.

I watched as Marciano tried to scream behind the gag, pulling and yanking on the ropes, the knife bobbing as he moved. The screen went dark, black shadows moving, showing what must have been Gio’s boys, as they untied and dragged Marciano away. He believed me when I cursed him, and so he should. He would never be free of that knife, it would follow him until he learnt or died, no one else but him or me would be able to see it.

Oh, yes. One of my blood would also be able to see the curse glowing around him, as well as the knife, but as I had just about resigned myself to them being dead, he and I were the only ones. The curse would start taking effect on him within minutes and by the time he was found, he would never be able to lie again, not even the smallest of fibs. He was doomed to tell the truth. How strange it was to have to curse someone into telling the truth.

My screen flashed bright and again I was looking at Gio sitting leaning back in a high-back office chair, looking a little stunned.

“Remind me never to tick you off, my young friend. You are a very deceptive person. Now, what am I to do about this knife? Police won’t let him have it, you know this. What are we going to do with Luther? Do you want me to bring him up here or down to the warehouse floor? If you want him somewhere else, you’ll have to give me a little more time, Thomas.”

“No, Gio. We’re going to burst Marciano lies. The office where you are is fine. We won’t be telling him the truth behind me, Tobias and Marianne, but he will know about Christian and Michael. Once this is all over, Michael will probably want him up to visit us in the future, particularly as we are keeping Christian. And don’t worry about the knife, within minutes it will be a ghost. The curse turns it to wind so that no matter what he does or where he goes, it will always be right in front of his nose. No-one will ever see it again after tonight. Well… Not unless he learns from this and turns honest, really honest, if that happens, the curse will end and the knife will reappear and fall away.”

“Oh…Ah… Right. Yes, Thomas. If you can give me two minutes to have Luther brought up.” He got to his feet and went to the door, he opened it and leaned out. He yelled in Italian to someone, at least, I assumed it was Italian, given his name. After having done that, he came back to the desk and pulled a second chair over beside the first seat and sat down. It was good to see that he was off the crutches he had been using when I first met him.

We waited a couple of minutes before the door opened and the man I assumed was Luther was brought in and he looked enough like Michael for just about anyone to see they were brothers, the resemblance between Luther, Michael and Christian was uncanny. The young man who had opened the door looked very much like a younger Gio.

“Here he is. You want us to hang around, Pappi?”

“No, Theo. Thanks for your help. You boys enjoy the rest of your night out.”

“Right you are, Pappi.” He didn’t waste time, just nodded and closed the door behind him.

Luther looked around the office and cautiously came over to the desk and sat down. He looked at Gio and at me on the screen.

“Who are you? And why have I been brought here?” Straight to the point just like Michael.

“All yours, Thomas.” Gio sat back with grin.

“Right, thanks. Marciano is being transported to another place, he will stay there until he is located by police.”

“No! No, leave him-“

“Michael’s with me.”

“-alone!... Wha-? Michael? But-” He cut himself off, before he finished what he’d started to say.

“Marciano never had Michael. I know he told you he did, but we both know he’s a liar. He never had Michael. Michael heard Marciano’s men and got out first, but he thought that they were _your_ men. Marciano had been hunting him ever since, but Michael’s got friends in places so low that Marciano never dreamed they could exist. Michael has always be free of Marciano.”

“No. Michael would never run. He would have stood and fought.”

“You don’t know Michael very well, then, do you? He’s had stood and fought anyone but his family, but to not hurt his family, he would, and did run. Michael has been running for since the night Sebastian and Julia died.”

“No.”

“Let’s leave that for a moment. Gio, play the other file please. Luther, you need to see this.”

Gio played a short composition I had made from the images on the sheriff HDD’s, of the abuse he dished out on Christian. It only lasted for a couple of minutes.

“I have to go! I have to get him!” Luther jumped to his feet before the video finished, but Gio kept him in the office.

“ _STOP_!” Luther froze. He turned back to face the screen and went even paler and started to sway.

“Grab him, Gio. Before he hits the floor.” Michael’s voice was clear and calm. He stood behind me, one hand on my shoulder and one hand on Christian’s. Gio manhandled a dazed Luther back to his seat.

“I’ll leave you with it, Michael.” He went out the door, quietly shutting it.

“Michael.” Luther whispered.

“Luther! Wake up!”

“Michael? Are you real? Are you safe? That boy said-“

“Thomas is no boy. Don’t let your eyes deceive you, brother. He might not have the years, but he’s no boy. Neither is Christian. They are both men who have grown up hard and fast, in a very ugly world. Thomas told you the truth. Are you prepared to listen, now?” Michael was giving him an out, Luther could say ‘no’ and Michael wouldn’t go any further.

“Oh, God. You’re alive. Oh, thank God.” He started to babble, mostly ‘oh God’ and ‘you’re alive’, and Michael’s name was in there too. Michael let him continue for a minute or two before speaking again.

“Luther. Stop. Will you listen?”

“Listen to what? Of course I’ll listen. …”

“Good. Thomas already told you that Marciano never had me. I never liked him, remember. You always said I was biased. I wasn’t, I just didn’t like him. I didn’t see Marciano after the fire, but when I heard his men talking about how their boss wanted me drugged and locked up, I figured they meant you when they talked about their boss, as I thought they were your men. So I climbed out a window and onto the roof of the house. From there it was only a matter a getting to the zip-line we had setup that went over to the carriage house. Remember that thing, it was so much fun.” He grinned at Luther, who looked shell-shocked.

“After hitting the carriage house, I grabbed Seb’s dirt bike. He had that trail out the back, I took it until I got to the bridge. Once I got down onto the road I was gone. I got to town and the banks, cleaning out all the accounts I could in as short a time as I could, before Marciano’s men had time to report to him, that they’d failed and he could block my access to our money. I raided accounts at five banks in Alexandria, three in Arlington, three in Bethesda and another four in Silver Spring taking as much cash as I could each time, I ended up with a couple of bags holding, oh I think about 3 million, maybe a little more. From there to a bike dealer, to sell the bike for cash. Catching a bus across town to a car yard, I bought a older jeep, again for cash. A disposal store got me some camp gear. Then I spent three months roughing it in Jefferson National Forest, with tinned whatever to eat, before I decided to reach out to dad’s friends. I didn’t know who to trust. I thought my own brother had ordered my kidnapping and torture. I never told them who I was, just that I needed help. I was lucky. One of those I reached was Marco Santori. I didn’t have to tell him who I was, he already knew. Marciano had put a contract out on me, to capture alive, with no major injuries. Marco sent me to his father, Gio, whom you just met. He got me papers and Id’s and helped me hide in pain sight for the last four years. No problems. Not until I changed jobs again, this year I went teaching.” He laughed and shook his head.

“Amongst the kids I was trying to teach Russian and German to, was this brat.” With one hand he ruffled my hair.

“He was only my student for a couple of weeks, but his grasp of languages is phenomenal. Now his sister is my wife and we’ve adopted him. We decided to go back to Canada, it’s a little more ‘gay-friendly’ for Thomas. He’s been on the wrong end of some bigotry recently. But just before we crossed the border, Thomas wanted to say farewell to US soil. We stopped about ½ mile from the border so he could take a walk. Then he came back telling me he’d found a boy being beaten and would I help. Of course I’d help. So we rescued Christian, along with your books and a number of Hard Disc Drives. You’ve just seen some of the files on them. Once I started to read the first book, it became clear you weren’t the one I was running from. I asked Thomas to deal with it and he has. Magnificently. Marciano is in a float tank headed for one of his own warehouses and Thomas has sent some of the information you found on Marciano’s computer to the media as well as the police. Marciano will do time.”

Christian whimpered and reached for me, I tucked him close and put an arm around him. He had to bend to hide his face in my shoulder. He might have been older and larger than me, but he’d just seen the man responsible for killing his parents for no other reason than greed, of course he needed comforting and I was the one he turned to for that comfort.

“A lot of time.” I added. “But that is minor now. He’s also been cursed.” I watched Luther’s mouth quirk. “He has a knife that floats in front of his nose, that no one else will ever see.” I pressed play on the recording I did of my conversation with Marciano.

Michael just stared. Luther fell back in his seat in shock. Christian watched quietly, before turning to look at me.

“Can you really curse someone?”

“Yes.” I answered him, my voice flat and hard.

“Good. Can we work one out for the Sheriff? Please?” His voice shook slightly.

“Already done. Just need an empty space to do it. Without a visual link the curse elements need much more space to interact.”

“The Sheriff is mine. I’ll deal with him.” That was Luther.

“No. He hurt me. He’s mine.” Christian’s voice, like mine, was flat and cold.

“We can deal with the Sheriff later. Right now, we have to deal with Marciano.” Michael was trying to head off an argument.

“Marciano is dealt with. Besides the curse, I’ve sent a selection of his blackmail files, the orders to sabotage your parents’ plane, the order to kidnap Julia and a few other incidents, to a number of the news channels as well as the police. In a few hours, roughly 3am central, my computer will send the news channels a tip on where he is. They’ll have him before the police. With the media involved and them having the same files as the police, there is no way he can get out of it. Plus the curse means that he can’t lie when being questioned. Or ever again, for that matter. Marciano is no longer an issue.” The three of them looked at me. Luther struggling with shock. Michael with a proud smile and Christian with admiration and a grin.

“Luther, please call Gio back. We need to discuss tactics.”

“Michael?”

“Please, just do it, Luther.”

Luther got to his feet and walked to the door. “Um... What...? What should I say? What should I call him?”

“Until he says otherwise, you call him Mr Santori. Use your manners, brother.”

“Oh… Right.”

With that he opened the door and stepped out, leaving the door open behind him. He called out to Mr Santori and asked him to come back to the office. Luther stayed at the door until Gio entered, coming back to his seat at the same time as Gio.

“Michael? Thomas?”

Michael nodded to me. “You came up with this, you run with it.”

“Right. First. Luther. We asked Gio to alter Michael’s records to show that he left New York about a month or so before your parent’s crash. Because we want this to look like it was, maybe not planned, but not something hidden either. Gio I need you to give Luther the SIM card from the cell you’ve used as a contact for Michael. This will enforce the idea that Luther has had random contact with Michael on an ongoing basis. We can reinforce that while Luther has been in contact he hasn’t really known where Michael was because they had fought badly the last time they were together. And yes. They did fight, in public no less. At the airport when their parents bought the plane not 3 weeks before the crash. Doing it this way means Michael can avoid the investigation into Marciano. Also I’ve altered some of the details in his files to make it look like he was threatening Luther with drugs, he did have Luther drugged right after the fire, mainly because he needed make it look like Luther was unbalanced. Now we can show that Marciano did this deliberately to get control and has been continuing those threats. This means Luther won’t be questioned so closely either.”

“My God! Where did you find this kid?! He’s got the most amazing mind!”

“Oh, I know, brother. You don’t know the half of it. We’ll leave it at this. I’ve called you for Christmas, birthdays and odd times, the usual times that estranged families contact each other. Gio will let you know, roughly, where I was each year, I never stayed in any one place for very long. It’ll be better for you if you don’t have too many details.”

“Oh, but he does need to know some things, Michael. Things like you married Marianne. Then about adopting me, fostering Christian and adopting him. The tornado that wiped out the company you worked for. The tornado that took our house and our neighbour’s lives and left us Tobias.” We had told the sheriff that it was Michael’s brother-in-law who was Tobias’ father, but when we ordered the changes to our papers we had his changed so they showed that his family had been our neighbours, instead.

“Who’s Tobias? What do you mean adopting Christian?” Luther looked puzzled, but Gio just laughed and said, “Many changes in the last 4 years, Luther. Many.”

I looked at Michael and said, “Maybe we should get Marianne in on this, too.”

“She’s gone across to the amenities block, she wanted to get some more laundry powder. Seems, we’re out.” How normal.

“Huh. Okay, Luther. Us having Tobias and adopting Christian are legal. On paper anyway. On paper, Christian has been living with us for nearly 3 months and the adoption was finalised just over 6 weeks ago. It wasn’t until Christian was fostered with us that it was realised that his father was Michael’s brother, which helped fast-track the adoption process. Tobias, is another adoption. His father was a storm-chaser that took the rest of the family out with him, no one came back. At least that’s the paper version.” I wasn’t going to tell him anymore than that. If Michael wanted him to know, then he could do the telling, not me.

“Where do you live now? If a tornado took your house, where are you living?”

“We’ve just crossed the Canadian border, we’re in a campground for tonight. Tomorrow, Gio’s grandson, Tonio, is meeting us at the airport and taking the RV back, he’ll have our latest lot of papers with him. We’ll be heading for Cochrane, where we’ll rent a house for a while, but eventually we will move to Vancouver. I expect you to visit, brother.”

“I think I’m a bit lost.” Personally, I think Luther was a _lot_ lost.

“That’s fine Luther. You don’t need to have to much detail. It’s better if you don’t. This thing with Marciano, will allow for a family reunion. Just don’t expect Marianne, Thomas, Christian and I to come back to America for a while yet. You’ll have to come to us. We organised a house earlier this afternoon. You may not be able to reach us on the cell, as reception could be an issue, but you can text and leave messages. Once we get established I’ll get the landline number to you.”

“I’m tired. Can I go to sleep, now?” Christian had been leaning on my shoulder since he and Michael came back inside.

“Sure you can. Michael, I’m going to get some sleep too. Leave the laptop going, I’ve done a subroutine that will automatically send Marciano’s location to the media people. Christian, you use the bathroom, while I check if Tobias needs a change. We’ll be sleeping up there.” I pointed to the bunk above the cab, it was big enough for the 5 of us, even if Christian and I would be the only ones up there. Ricky was used to having Merri creep into his bed, sharing with Christian would just cement that Christian was family, that he was my brother now.

The door opened and Marianne came back inside. She put a bottle of laundry liquid up on a shelf before coming over us. She put a hand on Michael’s shoulder and leant against him.

“Luther. This is my wife, Marianne.” Michael continued to talk to Luther and Marianne for a while, but I tuned out. I was far more interested in sleep. Maybe having another person close would let me sleep without nightmares. I hoped so. I changed Tobias and put him in his port-a-cradle, the used the tiny bathroom to get my pyjamas on. I hugged Michael and kissed Marianne, before showing Christian how to climb up onto the bunk. I pulled the curtain across as Christian slid onto the bunk behind me.

I wanted to rip that Sheriff to shreds, I really did. How long since Christian has slept in a bed? Even one as rough as this? He snuggled down under the covers and just looked at me.

“What now? What do we do now?” I wasn’t sure if he meant, right this minute and going to sleep, or if he meant, what do we do with our lives from now on? Either way, we go to sleep and deal with the rest in the morning. My program would send the emails via re-routes and public servers, to the media channels, then delete all evidence of them from my laptop. I would do a hard-wipe in the morning and that would be the end of it, my security program far more advanced than anything available retail.

“Close your eyes. When you wake in the morning, we will start our new life, with our new family, in our new land. We will stop at a caryard to buy a car on our way to meet Gio’s grandson, Tonio at the airport and once that’s done, we just drive away. That’s the plan.”

“A new life… Who will I be now?” A tear made a path down his cheek.

“Now, you will be Christian de’Belle, Michael and Luther’s nephew, Marianne’s foster son, my cousin and foster brother. How does that sound?” Did he like the idea of that?

“Can’t I just be your brother?” He held his breath waiting for me to answer him. He sounded so scared and a little sad, too.

“Oh, Christian. You are my brother …in here.” I put my hand on his heart. “In here you are my brother, just as Marianne is my sister. The rest is only details. Okay?” He was Merri’s Heart, of course he was going to be my brother.

He grinned and took a deep breath, as he let it out, his eyes closed and he fell asleep. I watched him for a couple of minutes before my eyes closed, too.

Tomorrow was another day.

Tomorrow was a new day.

Tomorrow was a new life.

A new life with my new family in a new country.

For the first time in nearly a week I went to sleep easily, not to be woken by nightmares.


	6. Chapter 6

Friday, August 15, 2003 – Thursday, September 18, 2003

 

Things rarely go smoothly for us.

 

We didn’t have any trouble buying a Chevy Suburban, that was fine. We found the airport with no problems either. But we had been woken just before 6am by Gio’s call. Tonio won’t be the one to meet us at the airport. A drunk driver side-swiped him just yards from Gio’s driveway and even though he wasn’t badly hurt, he wouldn’t be able to fly for a few days. Gio managed to get our papers hidden seconds before the paramedics turned up. He asked Theo, another grandson, to bring them to us, as Theo is also a bonded courier and he specialises in documents and gems. Handy that.

So, we were meeting Theo. Problem was, _I_ was the only one who knew what Theo looked like. I told Gio that he had the pictures from our papers to show Theo and that I would need to review the recording from last night, when Theo had brought Luther to the office. Gio offered to email me one of Theo’s selfies. Gio had no idea what a selfie was, but he’d email it anyway! Gotta love Gio!

When I queried how he still had our number, as he’d given Luther the SIM from the cell he used as Michael’s contact, he replied that before he’d taken the SIM out he’d used that cell to text our number to another prepaid cell. I had the new number as that was cell he was calling us from. After talking to Michael, it was decided that Marianne and Christian would wait at a service centre near the airport, with Tobias, while I went with Michael to meet Theo.

I needed to draw attention away from Michael and Theo’s meeting and because I was small for my age, I could get away with a much more childish behaviour, so it was decided that as soon as Theo was through customs, I would behave like a younger child. I would run and jump all over him. Make me the main attraction and the two of them just accessories.

At least, that was the plan. Like I said, thing rarely go smoothly for us. Theo was detained by security, something about undisclosed knives and firearms? I wasn’t certain, we couldn’t really hear all that clearly. It did work to our advantage though. We were stuck on the other side of the security area from where he was, but still within sight. He spoke to airport staff for more than 15 minutes, before being abruptly released. As soon as he was past the check-point area, I took off, running at him and jumping up, arms around his neck and wrapping my legs around his waist. I felt like an idiot!

“Unca Theo!”

“Hey there, matey! I’m glad to see you, Tommy.” Tommy!? Oh, no way! No way I was gonna be a ‘Tommy’! Bad enough having to behave like a little kid. ‘Tommy’ was definitely out!

“Unca Theo!”

“Theo. You know he hates being called ‘Tommy’.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s half the fun.”

“Unca Theo!”

“Okay, Thomas! Okay. How bout we get out of here, huh? I got a bit of time before I have to make this delivery. Let’s got see that wife of yours, Michael. I wanna hold little Tobias. Been looking forward to it, ever since Pappi told me you were here.” He was good, camouflaging his surprise at me jumping all over him.

“Come on!” I grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the exits, just like a younger kid would have.

“Easy there, Thomas. Slow up, matey. I have to get my bags.”

“Aww, Unca Theo!” God, I sounded like a spoilt brat. Just the way we planned.

“Thomas!”

“But-”

“Thomas!”

“I’m sorry, Michael.” I made sure I sounded like a little kid caught doing what he shouldn’t have been doing.

“Michael. Ease up, okay? We’ll grab my bags and get moving. That’ll keep this monster happy.” Theo ruffled my hair and put a hand on my shoulder to point me in the right direction.

It only took us a couple of minutes to get Theo’s bag and the two boxes he’d brought with him. Once we had them we were able to leave the airport. Nothing was said as we headed back to the service centre, to meet Marianne and Christian. Michael parked beside the RV and I got out and knocked on its door. Marianne opened the door quickly. Tobias was screaming, I was in and had him in my arms in seconds. It took him a few seconds to realise I was there before he started to quieten. When I looked up from Tobias, I saw that both Marianne and Christian were upset.

“What-?” I didn’t get any further before Marianne and Christian were holding me.

“You’re back. You’re back. You’re back.” Christian kept repeating that over and over.

Michael came in a minute or so after me and looked as startled at our welcome as I was to get it.

“Marianne? Christian?”

Marianne lifted her head from where it rested between my head and Christian’s shoulder. She had both arms wrapped around us.

“Michael.” She let go of us and reached out for him. He enclosed her in his arms, holding tightly. Both Marianne and Christian were shaking, it took a few minutes to calm them down. Theo came in, sat down and just watched us. Christian took longer to calm than Marianne did, he shook and trembled for the next 10 minutes, long after we found out why. It was Marianne who told us what had happened.

“It was him. That Sheriff. I went to the service centre’s store to get soda’s for us and some crackers for Tobias. He pulled up for gas as I came out. He didn’t see me, thank God. When I got back here, Christian said the Sheriff’s car went past really slow.”

“If he’s up here, he’s got to be looking for us. Or for Christian.” Michael looped an arm over my shoulder, pulling Christian and I closer to him.

“If that’s the case, then our timing is tight.” Theo lifted his briefcase and put it on the table. Once he had opened it, he pulled out 5 envelopes, each with one of our names on the front. He also removed a small lock-box. The kind that can be used as a moneybox or cash-box. A key was taped to the top of it.

“Papers for the 5 of you. Not all originals, but all legal. Pappi had copies of the legal papers placed in the lawyer’s office in Tulsa. Social Services computers have been hacked and background files for the three boys inserted. Documents and letters are here, to support the loss of papers in the tornado. Everything that is a copy of an original, has been signed by a Public Notary from the same legal office. Pappi said if you can avoid doing anything requiring legals for a few days, that would be best. He’s still having some of Michael’s fake Id’s transferred to the real one, but it’s taking longer than he first thought. Apparently you’ve had quite a few Id’s, rentals and been in a lot of jobs in the past 4 years.

We need to transfer your stuff to the Suburban and get you out of here. Pappi and Tonio thought that Edmonton might be a good place for you to stop for a couple of months, but agreed that the Vancouver area is likely to be better as a permanent base. If you don’t like Vancouver then Montreal looks pretty good, too.”

“Yes. We’ve already rented a house just out of Cochrane, but yes we agree that the Vancouver area will be where we end up. Let’s get your bags in and our things out to the Suburban. Thomas, you grab Tobias’ things. Christian, you get Thomas’ and your bags. Marianne, you mentioned food, can you make us some sandwiches? I’ll take Marianne’s and my bags. Christian, don’t forget the laptop bag and Thomas’ other computer things.”

“Hold up. Theo can you zip over to the service centre and get a prepaid SIM for me, please?” I had nasty idea. Nearly evil.

“What-? We don’t have time for this, Thomas. You can get one later.” Theo responded.

“Michael, I have an idea about the Sheriff. Getting him off our trail completely. Please?” Michael should know by now, how my mind works.

“Okay. Theo? Please? Thomas has the most bizarre mind. If he thinks he can stop the Sheriff, then likely, he can.”

Theo looked at me for a moment, then reached into his bag of tricks again, pulled out a new SIM and handed it to me. I gave him a grin as I took the back off of our current cell. In seconds I had the cell back together with the new SIM and less than 5 minutes later it was activated and ready for me to use. While I was doing this I had the laptop firing up. By the time the others had all our things gathered and packed, I had all the information I needed.

“Do I go ahead with this? Or do I wait until we are further away?”

“Well, that depends on what you have in mind, Thomas.” Michael couldn’t read my mind.

“In one word. ‘Blackmail’.” My voice was flat and hard.

Theo blinked, surprise clear on his face. “Blackmail? You really think that you can blackmail a Sheriff and get away with it? Thomas-”

“This Sheriff? _Yes_. Given what he’s done. Yes, blackmail is easy with him.”

Theo obviously didn’t know what that monster had done to Christian. I wasn’t going to tell him either. He didn’t need to know any details. That was something Christian needed to put behind him.

“All I need to do is send him a text and a video file. Either he stops or I send it to his local court-house. It’s simple. Stop or pay for it.”

“What file? What has he done?” Theo pushed for answers.

“Thomas? Do you really think it will stop him?” It was Christian who voiced the doubts.

“By itself, I don’t know, Christian. Combined with the curse I’m working on for him, yes, it will stop him. But for the curse I want to use, I’m going to need him in front of me. Somewhere isolated. Problem is, that as the curse I’m thinking of using is a life-level curse, I’m also gonna need you with me when I do it.”

“What? A curse? Come on now, Thomas, maybe you’d better leave-”

“How soon can you be ready to do the curse?” Michael cut Theo off.

“Michael!”

“I’m ready now, but Christian has the final say in when.”

“Thomas, show Theo the video from last night, please.”

“You got it.” I had already opened the file and as I turned the laptop around I hit play.

The whole thing only ran for maybe three minutes, but at the end of that time, Theo was a believer. He believed in magic, curses, witches and me.

“Whoa! Where did you learn to do that?”

“Will it look like that with the Sheriff, too?”

Theo’s question was unimportant, you either have the ability or you don’t. It is part of who I am. Christian’s question was a little more important, but not much. Even so, I had best answer both of them.

“I am the descendant of a Gypsy Queen. All of her descendants are capable of curses, some more than others. The lightening show depends of the severity of the curse. The curse I used on Marciano was a relatively minor one. But the curse for the sheriff is a life-level curse and given what he’s done, I don’t have a problem with that.”

“What’s a life-level curse?” Marianne asked.

“A life-level curse is a curse that unless he learns from it and stops causing others to hurt, the curse will take his life. It’s a serious curse. A life-level curse requires at least one victim to be present and as Christian is the one he hurt, it has to be him. Unfortunately Christian’s fear and pain have to be genuine, or there’s the possibility that the curse may not take. If that happens or if I make a mistake, it will rebound on me. I don’t want that. That’s why I need someone else there to do the talking. Basically I’m cursing him to a slow and painful death. This is why its called a life-level curse. It’s high risk.

The other option we have is to involve Luther. Get him to be the blackmailer. If we do that there is always the chance that the Sheriff tries to dish it back on Luther. But whatever we do needs to happen fast. I’m ready with the curse. I’m also ready to send the file to Luther. Your call, Christian.”

“Christian? Christian's call? What about the rest of you?”

“No. Thomas is right. It has to be Christian’s decision. He's the one, other than Thomas, that this impacts on the most. It’s his decision.” Michael certain about that.

“No matter what, you won’t let him take me away?”

“Never!”

“No.”

“Not a chance, Christian.” The three of us, Michael, Marianne and I answered him all at the same time.

“Then let’s get Luther to deal with it.”

“Okay.. Wait? What? Luther? But-” that wasn’t what I expected Christian to say.

“If you wouldn’t let him take me, he doesn’t matter to me anymore, so I don’t need to have anything to do with him and I don’t want to risk my new brother. Maybe we can let Luther deal with him while we start our new life. Yeah?”

Stars above, this boy was so forgiving. I needed to take lessons from him. He was willing to let someone else deal with that monster, just so we could make a new home. Michael and I looked at each other, humbled by his trust. Trust in us.

“Okay, Christian. We’ll let Luther deal with him. Thomas, send Luther the files and then give me the phone. I’ll call him and explain what’s happening. The rest of you, get moving on the rest of our gear and Tobias. Theo, how are you at putting in child-restraints? Any good?”

Michael grabbed bags with one hand and the phone with the other and headed out to the Suburban. Christian gave me a hug and followed him. Theo, just stared after them for a moment before literally shaking himself and joining them. Marianne waited until it was just her, Tobias and I left in the RV.

“Letting Christian decide was the right thing to do, Thomas. I’m proud of you. Proud that you’re my brother now. Send Luther that stuff and lets get going. I’ve had enough travelling for a while.”

“Yeah me too. I just-” I couldn’t say it. That when we stopped, I knew that we’d have to deal with the emotional fallout of what had happened to us. I wasn’t sure I was ready for that, but I also knew that I couldn’t put it off much longer.

“I know. But we’ll deal with it together. As a family. We can’t do that on the road. We need a home. A home for us. Somewhere we all can feel safe.”

I was glad that Marianne was a psych student, sometimes. She knew what we were facing. Emotionally anyway. I hugged her then I pressed keys on the laptop, glad Michael took the phone as texts really weren’t the way to tell Luther about the files I needed to send him. I only took a minute or so for me to be finished and be packing all the computer stuff I wanted to take with me. I knew that Tonio wouldn’t mind what I took from the techno-drawer, that he’d replace it. The last thing to be put in the trunk was a box of home-schooling books Theo had brought us, Christian needed to be brought up to level before we could seriously start thinking about formal schooling and as I was so far ahead for my age I could afford to take time out to help him.

Less than 25 minutes after the Suburban had came to a stop beside the RV, we pulled away, Marianne driving as Michael was still talking to Luther. Theo was taking the RV back to San Quentin and we were headed for Cochrane. Well, about 5 miles this side of Cochrane, actually. We had looked at a few places online yesterday and had spoken to realty agents and sent Michael’s references.

We rented a large empty house with out-buildings that backed onto the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park. What a stuffy name for a nature reserve. The house had a few acres and a large backyard with a gate to the reserve. The kitchen was new and had all the mod-cons. There were enough bedrooms that Christian, Tobias and I could have a room each, maybe not what we would do initially but certainly at some point that could happen. Michael had told the realty agent our cover story and asked her whether she could supervise a furniture delivery for us. She spoke to her partners and assured us that they would see that anything we needed would be delivered and ready for us. Michael asked about having the electrics, phone and water connected and we emailed her a list of things we needed immediately. Beds, table, chairs, fridge, washer, linen, all that sort of thing. Whatever Marianne said got added to that list. We had spent a fun hour and a bit the evening before, choosing furniture, whitegoods and linens for our new home. Angie offered to do it all for us and leave an invoice for Michael, along with an info package on Cochrane, schools, dentists, theatres, supermarkets, etc. Things were very different in small towns. It was going to take some getting used to. We were to meet her at the house on Glenbow Road later in the afternoon.

 

I was both nervous and excited as we turned onto the drive. It was a new house. But not just a new house, it was also a new name, a new family, a new country. A new life. I wasn’t all that ready to let go of the last one yet. Nightmares still haunted me. Merri screaming, gunshots, windows shattering, voices yelling and running. Running. Always running. I hoped this house would be the start. The start of stopping running. The start of a new life. The start of a new family.

We were stunned at the welcome we got. Angie had basically rounded up half the town to help. Once she heard our story she pulled out all the stops. The great-room/rumpus room with its attached bathroom, was turned into a type of dormitory room for Christian, Tobias and I, there were four double beds in it, plus a crib. The master suite was furnished, too, with whitewashed handmade timber pieces. All the timber furniture in the entire house was crafted locally, most of it by hand, the sort of pieces that would be heirlooms, handed down for generations. The living room had a huge sectional sofa and a couple of easy chairs, while the den was set up as a study area for Christian and I. In the kitchen, a French-door fridge was full to over-flowing and the oven had a casserole heating. Even the laundry room was in use, the washer and dryer had be running for ages, all the linen had been washed and some even dried.

There were books, games, puzzles and more. Angie had worked wonders in the twenty-four hours since we had first called her. She made calls and things happened. While Marianne had told her that we would be home-schooled initially, there notes and flyers about after-school activities, groups and sporting club calendars. Brochures and blurbs about day-care for Tobias. Information about the local colleges for Marianne as well as lists of commercial premises for Michael. There was also a package for us about the benefits of fostering, that I was sure Michael would look into further.

By the time it was dark, Christian and I had explored the house, yard and out-buildings. We had found a tree-house, a well and that the previous tenants had left behind a dog.

A dog.

I knew nothing about dogs. Ricky’s family had never been in one place long enough to have pets. We took the dog, who happily followed us, back to the house and asked Michael to check it out and if needed call a vet. He called the vet for advice anyway, never having had a pet either, the vet offered to drop in on his way home as he lived on our road and was our nearest neighbour. He didn’t know of anyone missing a dog or even that the previous tenants had had a dog. In the mean time, we were to feed the dog some rice and cooked chicken, minus the bones, in small amounts often. We called him Bongo, because he was always bouncing around and he seemed happy to stay with us.

The next few weeks were just spent getting our bearings, shopping and learning where things were. We went to doctors, dentists and opticians. Spent hours shopping for clothes. I learnt that Christian loved shopping and I still loathed it. He and I were still visited by nightmares and often would wake to find the other climbing onto our bed. While I was gay, Christian wasn’t, and initially, I worried that he would be uncomfortable being that close to me, but he wasn’t. As far as he was concerned I had become his brother and that was all there was to it. Tobias had a crib in our room and he seemed to be the only one of us who slept well, Michael and Marianne included.

Often we found time to just sit and talk, mostly about what we wanted to do, now. I found it harder to talk to Michael and Marianne than I did to talk to Christian. Maybe it was because he was nearly the same age as me. Maybe it was that he’d been in a far worse situation than I had been. Maybe it was the fact that he was Merri’s Heart. Maybe it was just Christian. I told him everything. From how Ricky and Merri had slept in the same cradle, learning how _not_ to curse someone, screaming the school down because Merri wasn’t in the same class, what it meant to me to be gay, to my first kiss. Everything.

Often Marianne would find me and tell me stories about her childhood, some were even nice, but most weren’t. No wonder she wanted to come with us, her parents were just nasty, vindictive people. They didn’t like each other and took it all out on her. They didn’t deserve to have her. Michael was the only constant in all our lives. He was there for me, for Marianne, for Tobias and for Christian. We all made sure that he knew we appreciated him. Made sure that when he needed us, we were there. Whenever he needed us. Always.

 

Five weeks after we arrived, a lady from Social Services called, saying that as Michael and Marianne had been foster parents in the US, would they consider joining the foster care system here in Canada? Michael stated that yes they had been thinking about it, but were uncertain if we were going to stay in the Cochrane region for any more than one year. The woman, Helena Parker, wanted to come out and meet them, as it was in their paperwork that they had a set of twins living with them. Michael had to explain to her that I was a twin but that earlier in the year my twin had died, he wasn’t sure that I could handle having another set of twins in the house. Mrs Parker’s response was that she had twin girls that had to go together but no one was prepared to give them a chance, they had come from a violent home and desperately needed a family to take them. He agreed to a meeting, but wanted it to be here with all of us present. Mrs Parker was happy with that. I’m not that sure Michael was.

Christian and I were just finishing our morning study session when Mrs Parker drove up. I yelled to Michael who was out on the back deck and went to open the door. Mrs Parker was in her late 40’s or early 50’s, with greying red hair and light blue eyes. She was polite in greeting us, but didn’t disregard us like I expected her to. She spoke to us, directly to us, not condescendingly at all. I listened to her as she talked to Marianne and Michael, telling them about the twins and about a teenaged boy, about how they needed help, fast. After a while I realised that Mrs Parker was one of those rare creatures that cared about the job she was doing and the children she was responsible for. When I saw that, there could be no doubt we would take the twins and probably the boy too. It was just a matter of time.

I knew Michael thought of Christian and I as shorter adults and respected our judgement on a lot of things, so I had no hesitation in quietly approaching Michael and whispering in his ear. “We are only here for twelve months. After that we’re going to Vancouver region. If these kids come here they are to be ours permanently. They move with us. If she agrees to that, arrange to meet the kids. Tomorrow is good.” With that said I left the room and went into the kitchen to finish preparing our lunch.

“Mrs Parker? Will you stay for lunch? We’re having individual hotpot pies, there’s vegetarian, chicken, beef and lamb. I made bread fresh this morning, too. I’m just about to toss a salad to go with it.” I called back over my shoulder. I walked off before she could answer me, headed in the kitchen door. Finishing the salad and dressing, I sliced the bread and made up a bowl for Tobias. A few minutes later Christian came in laughing.

“What’s so funny, Beanpole?” I was trying out different nicknames for him, but so far none seemed right.

“Mrs Parker doesn’t know what to say. She’s doing the – ‘oh, um, ah’ thing. Whatever you said to Michael, he’s also asked her to stay.”

“Do you think she will? Grab the salad and dressing for me?” I picked up the tray with the pot pies I had put in the oven an hour ago.

“Cool.”

He backed up to the door and used his shoulder to hold it open for me to pass through into the dining area. I put the tray on the table and went back to the kitchen for Tobias’ bowl. By the time I re-entered the dining room, Michael, Marianne and Mrs Parker were coming out of the family room.

“Oh, I don’t mean to interrupt your meal.” Mrs Parker started.

“Not happening. I made sure there was enough to go round. Christian and I will eat any leftovers later. We both seem to always be hungry, so I usually make more than just one meal. What’s the verdict?” I didn’t let her talk her way out of joining us. If we did take any kids, she would be around often, we’d make sure of it, so she needed to be comfortable with all of us.

“We’re going to meet the boy. What was his name, again?” Michael answered me and asked Mrs Parker at the same time.

“Andy. Anderson Greaves. He’s 16. He’s currently in a group home, but is not integrating well. He’s a little isolated.”

“Right. Oh. Before you made that decision, Mrs Parker. You need to know. I’m gay. If he’s going to be part of our family, he needs to know up front.” Was my response.

“Oh… Ah... Yes... Michael mentioned that. I’m not sure how Andy will react to that. I’m uncertain if he’s had any contact with anyone homosexual. It’s not something I’ve thought to ask before.”

“Well, maybe we should meet him before he makes that choice.” Michael was always going to be about people making their own choices.

“He? Oh. Um. Yes. Alright.” Poor Mrs Parker, she really didn’t know how to take us yet.

“Yes. He’s 16, you said. If he doesn’t want to stay, he will keep running away, no matter what Social Services try to enforce. But if he decides to stay, he will become part of our family, even when we leave this area. The same for the twins.” Michael wasn’t pulling the punches, he stated it clearly so Mrs Parker knew if these children came to us they stayed with us. Regardless of where we were.

“You’d want to take them with you? Keep them? Really? Not just while you’re here? Not just-”

“They would be ours. They’d go with us. Possibly in the long term we’d look at adopting them, depending on whether Social Services will allow it. If not, they’d still be ours. Part of our family.”

“Michael's big on people making their own choice. Even the kids. I made the choice to Michael's wife. Thomas made the choice to live with us. He made the choice to be adopted by us both. Christian made the choice to be part of our family. These kids, any of them? They will have to make the choice to be part of our family, if they do, then if Social Services are okay with it, they can think about making the choice to be adopted by us.” Got to love Maria, she’s learning to hold her own and say it how she wants, the way she wants.

“Oh. Well, Andy may be older, enough to decide, but the twins aren’t. They-”

“They’ll still be given the choice. If they don’t like us, we won’t force the issue. If they don’t like us, they won’t be happy living with us.”

“Oh. I see what you mean, now. Yes. That’s fine. We can work in with that… Marianne, these pies are luscious. I’d really like the recipe.” She tried to change the subject.

“You’ll have to ask Thomas for that. We don’t let Marianne anywhere near the stove.”

“Christian!” Michael and I both yelled.

“But we don’t.”

“No. It’s okay. I’m not a cook and I know it. I can do the prep-work and Christian helps, but Thomas does most of the actual cooking. If we are grilling, then Michael gets to do some. Normally the rest of us aren’t allowed anywhere near the stove.” Marianne was laughing as she explained.

I was happy to give Mrs Parker my recipe, it only took a minute to write it down for her. We talked food and cooking for maybe another half-hour, before Mrs Parker’s cell rang. She excused herself to answer it. When she returned there was a worried look on her face.

“I’m sorry.” She started. “Andy’s been admitted to the Emergency Room. There was a fight at the group home. One of the other lads, told police that Andy and his mentor had been talking this morning and that the mentor started to yell at Andy. When Andy tried to walk away the mentor grabbed him and threw him at a wall, before punching him, swearing at him all the time. I have to go. I need to get Andy, he’ll need to come home with me when he’s released from the hospital. Please excuse me.”

“Wait!” Michael looked at us and we all nodded, knowing exactly what he was thinking.

“We’ll follow you and if he wants, Andy can come here, when he’s released.”

“Seriously? Oh, that would be so good. And yes, after this, I agree that he has to decide. The home chose his mentor without talking to him and this is the result. Not good. Not good at all.”

Thank goodness we had purchased a Toyota Sienna 8-seat-minivan, yeah, we still had the Suburban, but two vehicles meant that if Michael was out, Marianne could drive us, and vice versa. We all piled into the Sienna and headed out to the road behind Mrs Parker.

“I hope he’s not been too badly hurt. The hospital may not let him go if he has been. Why would a mentor want to hurt him?” Maria asked. We didn’t know the answer to that.

“When we get there, maybe Thomas and me should go in first. If the mentor was man, he might not trust another man yet. We can at least talk to him. Keep him company until you’re done with the paperwork. What do you think, Michael?” Christian wanted to help and this seemed to be one way to do that.

“Yeah. Thanks, Christian. That might be good. I have no idea how long it will take. See you can get him to talk to you. See if he wants to come with us. Once we know, we can work out the rest. Clothes, personal effects. That sort of thing.”

We talked about what he would need and where we could get it, for the rest of the trip into town. When we pulled up beside Mrs Parker’s car, she was fuming mad.

“He’s still here. There’s two staff at the home that are in deep trouble! They burnt everything he had, everything in from his room. They didn’t even called the paramedics. A neighbour had to do that. She’s been listening to them rant about not needing his type of filth. Filth! He’s a boy! Not filth! The neighbour called the police to check it out. They’ve shut the home down and taken the staff in for questioning. Oh, God. Just what I need. Just wait til I get my hands on them!” Oh, boy, was she _mad!_

We followed in her wake and watched as she raised a storm. After a few minutes, a nurse came and said that Christian and I could go into his room. She pointed us in the right direction and went back to Mrs Parker. I knocked on the open door and stuck my head around the frame. I looked at the boy in the hospital bed, he had very light blonde, almost white hair, with pale blue eyes, he looked very unhappy.

“Hey. I’m Thomas, this is Christian. Can we come in?” Christian was beside me.

He grunted what I chose to take as agreement.

“Mrs Parker’s peeved, man. She’s tearing strips off people. She was at our place when the cops called. She’s mad.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Oh yeah! Anyways. You’re not going back to the home. She said that you could go home with her.”

“What! But she’s Social Services. They don’t do that. There’s rules against that.”

“Watch her. She gonna do whatever she wants. Screw the rules. But you got another choice. She was at our place, talking about you coming to live with us. Maybe. If you want.” He had to made that decision for himself.

“What? Why?”

“Why not? One thing you gotta know first.”

“Yeah, what?”

I took a deep breath, I was beginning to realise that so many people were unaccepting of my sexuality.

“I’m gay.”

“Oh.” He didn’t say anything more for while. Nurses came and went and he just looked at us.

“Your dad okay with that?” That was the first thing said in nearly half an hour.

“I don’t have a dad. I have Michael. He’s my brother-in-law and yeah, he’s okay with that. He’s known since before he and Marianne married. My dad left before I was born and mom died earlier in the year. Michael and Marianne adopted me and then a bit later they fostered Christian and then adopted him, too. Michael is big on people making their own decisions, so you get to decide if you’re coming to live with us or not.”

“He doesn’t care? Really?”

“Nah. He was my teacher before I introduced him to Marianne. It wasn’t a secret at school, everyone knew. Teachers, other students. Everyone.”

“You didn’t shit about it?”

“Nah, not really. Oh, yeah, I got into some fights, but only until the guys figured out I could take them down, them they left me alone.” He needed to know I could defend myself, I wasn’t gonna be walked on, not for anyone.

“You can fight?” That was a shocked response.

“Yeah. Been doing martial arts since I was 4. Started with karate, moved on to jujitsu and taekwondo. There’s a studio in Calgary that teaches capoeira, Michael's got me some lessons. It’s so cool. They do lots of different styles, so I’ve got a chance of maybe trading lessons for some teaching. I hope so, anyway.” I really wanted Christian to have some lessons, too, but he wasn’t ready to deal with those type of physical actions. Not yet, or maybe not from other people. Hmm… I’d have to think about that for a bit longer.

“Really?”

Suddenly there were voices in the hall, yelling and arguing. Michael’s voice was deep and strong and right there backing Mrs Parker. She was really kicking up a storm. We heard words like deprivation, abuse, retardation, neglect, bias, fanatic and ignorance.

Michael's head popped round the door.

“Well?!” Oh, he was in a bad mood, someone must have said the wrong thing.

“Dunno. Gimme 5.”

“Right.” He was gone again.

“Thomas!” Christian had been watching Andy when I answered Michael. I turned back quickly, Andy was terrified and trying to get out of bed.

“Whoa! Hold on! That was Michael. He’s a good guy.”

“No! He’s angry. And he’s big.” Andy was _very_ afraid of men, just like Christian had been when I found him.

“Michael's a softie. You don’t have to be scared of him.” Christian spoke just as I did.

“He’s not angry at you. He and Mrs Parker are fighting to get you released from here, he wants you to come home with us and she just wants you safe.”

“No one wants ya. They all say they do, but they don’t. Not really.”

“Do any of them say why?”

“Yeah. None of them want a faggot around.”

“Better forget that word, if you want to live with us. Marianne hates it… You know, I looked it up once, a faggot in England is a meatball and in other places it’s a bunch of firewood. I mean what's food or sticks got to do with who I wanna get busy with? I don’t get it. And yes, Michael and Marianne wanted me. I lived with them before they offered to adopt me, they didn’t _have_ to. They wanted to. Same with Christian, but he’s straight, not that it makes any difference.”

I needed him to understand how our family works, for some reason, there was a part of me saying, I needed him to be a part of our family. The same part that said ‘trust Michael’, ‘save Marianne’, ‘take Tobias’ and that said ‘rescue Christian’. At least recently that’s what it had been saying. At some point in the future I would need him and right now he needed me, that made it a good trade and we were even. Not that it matters, if he came with us he would be family, we would do anything for our family. Anything.

“Huh? I meant me, not you.” Yes! I was right. He was gay, too! My gaydar was still going strong.

“Oh... It’s the same thing. At least in our house. Doesn’t matter who it is. It’s your choice. Like choosing salad or fries. It’s your choice, not someone else’s. So… you gonna come with us or you going with Mrs Parker?”

Just then Mrs Parker came in with another woman, both were flushed.

“I’m sorry-” the other woman started.

“No! Not good enough, Sarah! There are rules in place and you deliberately ignored them. You wanted those two, so you went behind the board to get them, now you can take responsibility for them! They neglected to complete paperwork, they didn’t attend meetings or make appointments, they failed to call for medical assistance when it was needed, they abused children in their care and they wilfully destroyed a child’s possessions. I’ve had to put in a call to the director at home. He’s as disgusted with the three of you as I am. You will be formally notified in the next hour of your suspension, there will be an investigation, at least one. There should be more. You abused your position and ignored the board. Police have been called and places found for the boys, charges will be levelled against the two men. Consider yourself very lucky you weren’t on site at the time, or I’d see you charged, too! For now, give me his paperwork and get out of my sight!”

Wow. She was mad!

“See. We told you.” Christian whispered to Andy.

“Now… Andy… The Chamberlin's have offered you a place in their home.” She had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself as she spoke.

“No. That’s not right. We are offering him a place in our _family_ , not just our home.” Marianne almost cut her off, before she could get very far.

“Your family?” Andy was stunned.

“Our family.” Marianne was adamant.

Andy looked at each of us for nearly a minute, before turning to me.

“Will you teach me to fight, too?”

I didn’t wait for Michael's response, as far as I was concerned, everyone should be able to defend themselves. Okay, they shouldn’t _need_ to, but they should be _able_ to.

“Yep. But not until the docs gives you the green light. Okay?”

“Okay.” He then looked at Mrs Parker. “Okay then. When can I get out of here?”

“We’re cleared to go. I’ve got your paperwork right here, along with prescriptions for medication. There’s some vouchers. I’m sorry. Your things at the home… Those idiots… I’m sorry, they burnt all your things. I’m so sorry. I’ll see if anything can be salvaged, but-… I’m so sorry.” She was on the verge of crying.

“No. You got nothing to be sorry for, Mrs P. You only been good to me. Don’t you be sorry.” Andy was gonna fit into our family just fine. “Just get me out of here. I’ll stay with them, if Thomas ’ll teach me to fight.”

“Right. Good. Can we go now?” Michael was in a hurry.

“Ah… I got no clothes, man. The ER nurses cut off what I was wearing and Mrs P said the home people burnt my stuff. I got nothing.”

“Grab the blanket for now. We’ll replace what we can. Mrs Parker gave us some vouchers for clothing. Once your feeling better, you three boys can go into Calgary and spend them. Christian loves shopping. Thomas, not so much, but he’ll still go with you. In the mean time, you and Christian are much the same size so he’ll give you a few changes, just means he gets to replace them.” Marianne really did understand us.

“You’d let us go into the city?” Still shocked.

“Of course. You’re not going to get much in clothes, here in Cochrane, you’ll need to go in Calgary. Either Michael or I will drive for you, mostly because, for a bit, you’re not going to be up for dealing with public transport. We’ll drop you somewhere and pick you up a bit later. For now… Let just go home and get you settled. Okay?”

“Yeah… Please.”

“I’ll go get a wheelchair, you can’t walk yet, Andy.” With that Mrs Parker was out the door.

“You didn’t move that time, why are you wincing?” Marianne had been watching him much closer, since he’d agreed to come with us.

“What?”

“Oh. I get it.” It suddenly twigged to me. “You don’t like being called Andy, do you?”

Mrs Parker came in pushing a chair.

“I… I… Uh… No, I don’t.” He whispered. He was afraid to say something about it. Not sure why, but he was.

“Well…What do you want us to call you? With Anderson, there’s not a lot of options. You could be Sonny, Derson or just Der…. You tell us.” Christian wanted to know.

“Oh, goodness, I just assumed that you preferred Andy. That’s what was written on your file, I’m sorry. What do you prefer?” Poor Mrs Parker, she was having bad day.

“Before he died my dad used to call Anderson. He never shortened it. He didn’t like it when people shortened their names. He used to say ‘that was their name, they should use it’. I don’t mind Derson, though, that’s cool.” He was trying make us chose for him. Not happening in the long run, but we’d cut him some slack today.

“What about we call you Anderson for the moment and we can use Derson as a nickname? How does that sound?” Christian was always going to be our mediator. Well, when we could get him to talk at all.

He let Christian and Marianne help him up off the bed and into the chair. Mrs Parker pushed him out the door and down the hall to the elevator. From there to getting all of us into the car was a matter of a few minutes.

Another 20 minutes and we were home, with Tobias in his walker and Anderson on the sofa. I spent 5 minutes talking to him about school and what level he was at, while Christian and Marianne sorted him some clothes and made up a bed for him in our room. Now I was glad that our room was on the ground floor as by tomorrow he was going to hurt like hell. The only good thing was, that the four of us knew exactly how he was feeling, Christian especially. Our own pains were still recent enough to be fresh in our minds. I know I wasn’t the only one who winced every time Anderson moved. It was going to be a long night.

I woke during the night to both Christian and Anderson’ nightmares. I woke Anderson as I checked Tobias.

“Hey. Hey, it’s okay.” I watched him wake, afraid and disorientated for a moment, then there was relief on his face, when he realised where he was.

I threw one of Tobias’ stuffed toys at Christian and he jerked awake.

“Wha-?”

“Nightmare. Come on.” I was glad that all the beds in here were double, we rarely spent a full night in our own bed, needing the comfort of someone else there. Christian heaved a sigh and slid from his bed, two steps and he was under the covers, squirming until he was comfortable.

“What are you-?”

“Now you can sleep. We all have nightmares and this way no-one has to face theirs alone. Works for us. It’ll work for you. Shut up and go to sleep.” Christian could be grumpy when he’s not quite awake. We wriggled down, one on each side of him. It took a while before he relaxed and went back to sleep, but none of us had any more bad dreams that night.


	7. Chapter 7

Friday, September 19, 2003

 

“Come on boys. Mrs Parker rang, she’ll be here in half an hour. Time to get moving.” Marianne woke us in the morning, so obviously we had slept late.

I staggered through the bathroom while Christian helped Anderson to get dressed. I sorted Tobias out while they used the bathroom and we all headed to the kitchen together. Anderson was slow and stiff, obviously still in pain. Marianne had suggested that a hot shower might help loosen the muscles, but the way his stomach was making noises, I figured food and meds came first.

Mrs Parker came in just as I was finishing cooking our breakfast. We were having oatmeal, eggs, bacon, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, sausages and toast. Turns out our Anderson was okay in the kitchen, able to follow directions and stir when told. Nobody else in this family could. Everyone sat down and while Mrs Parker didn’t have much, she did snag a couple of pieces of bacon to go with her coffee. Coffee was Michael's forte and the kitchen had this fancy machine to make it with. Yuck!

When we’d finished all the food and quietened the beasts in the belly’s, we moved to the south facing deck, the adults with fresh coffees and us four boys with juices. It didn’t take long for someone to start talking. That someone was Mrs Parker.

“I’m sorry to do this to you, but I need to made a call on the twins, today. They’ve been with a family for short-stay, but an older child has made allegations about the family’s son. Apparently she caught him being inappropriate with another, younger foster child. The foster father called me late last night, he’s sent the boy to family, but it’s just one thing too many for them, they want the children removed. The child that their son assaulted has been hospitalised and will be placed out of area. There’s another child, a boy, that has just been placed permanently but hasn’t left them yet, that was due to happen tomorrow. The older child that made the allegation, will be going to college in Montréal on a scholarship, so we’ve sent her ahead, a week early. The twins need to stay together. Please. Please consider them.”

“We need a couple of minutes as a family to discuss this. Could…? The garden here is very nice, if you throw a stick for Bongo, he’ll happily play fetch with you.”

“Of course.” Mrs P went down the steps after Bongo, he’d heard that magic word, ‘Fetch’.

“I’ll go have a shower.” Anderson started to get to his feet.

“What? No, Anderson, you’re family, too, now. You get a say in this. These girls have come from a violent home, and now this, they must be so scared.” Marianne was definitely our mother-hen.

“But-”

“No buts, Anderson, you’re family now. Thomas, how are you going to handle twins in the house again?” If Marianne was our mother-hen then Michael was our protector.

“I miss Merri every day, but she’s still my twin. I’ll love her until I die, but she’d kick my ass if I let the fact that she’s not here stop us from helping other people, especially other twins. Don’t get me wrong, it will hurt to see them together, when Merri and I aren’t, but if Merri were alive, she’d be here, too. And we’d still be taking the twins. Merri was the one that the little kids loved, not me, I’m good with babies. We need to meet them first. They might not like us.”

“Right. What about you Anderson? How do you feel about having two little girls in the house?”

“The last foster place I was in, before I run away, had three little girls, two were twins. They were cute. And loud. Girls together are _really_ loud. If it hadn’t been for the dad in that house, I think I’d still be there, but he found out I was gay and thought that I should put out for him. I ran away and when I was found, Mrs Parker was give my case to work with, she wanted me to try the group home. It didn’t work.”

“So… Is that a ‘yes’?”

“Yes.”

“Yay! We get more kids!” Christian was almost bouncing. We all laughed at his excitement. Maybe we should have got a bus instead of the Toyota Sienna, we might need it yet! The twins would mean six kids in the house. Yep, that was gonna be loud… And fun!

“I’ll go rescue Helena, while Anderson gets that shower.” Marianne stopped at the railing before looking back at Anderson. “We’ll never give you cause to want to run away. We like you, we want you. You fit our family well. Think about it over the next couple of days, about whether you want us to adopt you.” She was down the steps and whistling for Bongo, not at all concerned about the bombshell she’d just dropped on him.

Anderson looked even more stunned now than he did yesterday when Marianne had corrected Mrs Parker’s comment about what we were offering. I thought it would be Michael that told him to think about adoption, though. Still looking stunned, he got to his feet and shuffled off for that, hopefully, muscle-loosening shower.

By the time he came back, thankfully looking much better, Mrs Parker, Michael and Marianne had decided that we should meet the girls today. Given the situation that they were in, Mrs Parker thought it best if we went to them and so she contacted the foster family to arrange a time. They had another foster couple coming later this afternoon to collect the boy, so she felt if we could come out this morning, it would distract from the visit this afternoon. If the girls liked us then we would be able to bring them home with us immediately. We knew that this was counter to all the rules that Social Services try to enforce, they like to interview and examine for days, maybe weeks before placing a child, but the situation was extreme. Just as Anderson’s had been.

The girls were in a family home on the other side of Calgary from Cochrane, so once Anderson was back from his muscle-easing shower and had more of his meds, we piled into the Sienna, again, and headed out to follow Mrs Parker. Again. Unfortunately we hadn’t missed all the morning traffic, so what should have been a 45 minute drive took nearly twice that, but finally we pulled up at a neat, not so little two story timber clapboard house. There were a few toys and a bike out front, enough that a passer-by would know that there were kids in the house. Three small faces peered at us from an upstairs window.

We all climbed out, Anderson taking a little longer than the rest of us, but given his condition, that was to be expected. I hoped that his pain meds would hold until we got home, but Michael had insisted we bring them with us, just in case. Mrs Parker went to the door and knocked, a tall thin man with a tired face opened it for us.

“An’erson!” There was a squeal and two small blonde girls pushed past the man and flew at Anderson. He slid to his knees and grabbed both the girls. They yabbered, squealed and laughed, but never let go of him. One had her arms around his neck and the other around one of his arms, his wrapped them up tight to him. Tears ran down his face. I wondered if he would ever loose that stunned look.

The man, Mrs Parker and Michael looked at each other, kinda lost for words. Marianne laughed.

“Well… I guess, we’ve going to have girls now.”

“I guess so.” Michael responded. I didn’t doubt, now, that the girls would come home with us.

“Oh, my.” The man looked as stunned as Anderson. “They’ve been so quiet, I’ve never heard them speak out loud, only in whispers.”

Anderson looked up at him.

“These two are loud. Very loud. But fun.” He tickled one girl and she giggled and squeaked, the other bouncing beside him.

“How do you know the girls?” The man asked.

“They were in the last place I was fostered.” He replied. “KatyCat go grab your bags, we have a new home with a real family, that we get to keep, forever. We even got a dog.” He looked up at Michael. “Will they stay in our room or is there a room just for them?” Both girls took off at a run, shoving past the man in the doorway again, they scrambled up the stairs laughing.

“We haven’t got a room ready, yet. So, they can have one of the beds in your room and over the next couple of days, Thomas, Christian and I will paint a room for them. They’ll have to choose a colour and some furniture.”

“Oh, lord. Don’t tell them that! You’ve no idea what they’re like, when it comes to colours. They’ll have every colour under the sun on the walls.”

“The only thing those two can’t agree on is colour. Don’t let them choose. Please?” Anderson answered at the same time as the foster father did. It took him a bit but he slowly got to his feet.

“Okay. I think its safe to assume that the girls are happy to go with the Chamberlin's. I know that this has been a very difficult time for you, Peter. Thank you for calling and informing me. We’ll keep it quick, I understand you have another couple coming in soon to pick up Luke. If you’ll sign these papers, the Chamberlin's, can start loading up their horde of a family. Are there any larger items, they should be taking?” She pulled papers and a pen from her bag and handed them to the man she called Peter.

“Thanks, Helena. Yes. They do. There’s a bike each and they also have dolls house. It’s just inside the door, here, along with a box of things to go in it.” He signed them quickly.

“An’erson!” The girls were back. They dropped their bags in front of him and wrapped an arm around each of his legs.

“KatyCat. Have you said goodbye to everyone and thankyou?”

The girls turned as one and raced back into the house, yelling for Luke, Lucy and Maisy-ma.

“They’re so different with him. They never laugh or yell, they’re just so quiet…” He shook himself. “We told them to pack their dolls house up earlier this morning, when they packed their bags.” He looked at Michael. “Will you have room for it and the bikes, or will you need to come back for them?”

Mrs Parker answered Peter. “No. Put them in my car, Michael. I’ll follow you home. I want to talk to the girls and make sure that they understand what's happening.”

Peter handed Mrs Parker back the papers, while Christian and I grabbed a bike each. Michael was so much bigger than us, he could get the dolls house easily. Peter picked up the box of toys, as Marianne collected the girls bags. We put the girls’ bags in the back of the sienna and the bikes and other stuff in the back of Mrs Parker’s red SUV.

We’d barely finished before the girls were back, this time with a slightly older boy in tow.

“An’erson! This is Luke. He’s got a forever family too. Can we visit him? He’s got no sisters. He should have a sister.” I was noticing that one of the girls spoke more often.

Anderson looked at Mrs Parker.

“Can we do that?”

“I’ll have to check with Luke’s new family, but I don’t see a problem with that. It might be good for the three of them. I’ll ask them. Okay?” That last was directed to the girls.

“Okay. Are we going home now, An’erson?”

“Yes, KatyCat. We’re going home now. Get ya butts in the car.” Anderson was going to be a great brother, I just knew it. Both girls scrabbled to get to the car, then stopped and looked back at us.

“Who sits where?”

Marianne opened the door for them.

“Tobias get the car seat. You two can sit in back with Anderson if you like. Then Christian and Thomas will sit in the middle row. How’s that sound?”

“Yay! We get An’erson!”

“KatyCat!”

“But we do.”

“Yes you do. But this is our family now. You get all of us.” Anderson seemed to be saying more than just what the words said.

We travelled west before heading north-west once we left the city. No one said much other than the girls. They spent most of the trip chattering away to Anderson, telling him about Luke, Lucy and a couple of other names. All the time they kept a hand in his, like they needed the contact. Just as Marianne and I had with Michael. He was their safety. Eventually though, curiosity won and one of them started to talk to the rest of us.

“Are you going to be our mommy?” She asked Marianne.

“Yes, I’m going to be your mother, but maybe you can call me Ma, it’ll be easier for the boys, too.”

“Who are they, Ma?” The quieter of the twins spoke up finally.

“This one is Christian. He’s the oldest and he loves to play with our dog Bongo. The other one is Thomas, he’s the cook in our house, he won’t let me use the stove because I’m no good at it and burn things. You already know Anderson, he came to be part of our family just yesterday. And this is Michael, he’s going to be your daddy. Or dad, whatever you want to call him.” She pointed to each of us in turn.

“Call we call him ‘Da’? We had a daddy once and he wasn’t very nice. He used to hit our other mom and sometimes he’d hit us.” Oh, God, the things people do to the ones they should love the most.

“Oh, honey. Of course you can call me Da, if you want to. I promise that I will never hit you and neither will any of our boys. Okay? Now. I have a question. Which one of you is which? I know that one of you is Katherine and the other is Caitlin. But which is which? Are you going to tell us?” Michael spoke softly to them.

“I’m Caitlin. She’s Katherine.” It was the quieter of the two who spoke this time. “It doesn’t matter. No one can tell us apart. We’re twins.” She said it just like Merri used to. Like it explained everything.

“Thomas?”

“Yeah. I got it, Michael.” There were subtle differences between them, Caitlin’s eyebrows were more arched and Katherine mouth tilted up more. The shape of their eyes was the same, but the colours varied slightly. Not to mention that Katherine was the cheeky one and Caitlin the mischief maker. It was kinda obvious to me.

“Got what?” Katherine asked.

“Got you two sorted out. Now I know which is which, I’ll never get you mixed up again.”

“Everyone does.” That was Caitlin.

“I won’t.” I decided to tell them why. “I used to have a twin sister. She died. So I know important your twin is and how to tell the difference between you.” I wasn’t ready to talk about Merri, not really, but how do you tell two little girls with big blue eyes that?

“Really? You’re a twin? Why did she die?”

“Are you sad? Do you miss her?” Trust Caitlin to ask the harder questions.

“Yes. I’m a twin. I miss her every day. And yes, sometimes it makes me sad. My birth dad wasn’t nice either and he hurt us, Merri didn’t survive, he killed her.” I said as Michael pulled the sienna to stop in front of our house. I broke down crying, I missed Merri so much, sometimes it was too much to bear. I shook and sobbed, not realising for a few minutes that there were four little arms holding me, two around my neck and two around my legs. Caitlin was sitting on my lap and Katherine on my feet. Both of them had tears on their sombre little faces. As I put myself together, they held me. No pressure, no expectations, no time limits. They just held me.

It took me so long to get under control again, that Mrs Parker had pulled up beside us and Christian and Michael had unloaded the KatyCat’s things. Everyone was giving me the time I needed, to let go of Merri – no, not let got of Merri, but let go of the anger I felt at Anthony James for shooting her, as well as my anger at her for dying. Oh, yes… I know. Its not her fault he killed her, but part of me still says she left me. We’d been together since before our first breath, she had been the only person in my life that I could rely on, and now she’s dead.

Its more than that, though. We are the descendants of a Romany Gypsy Queen. One who specialised in curses. Her lover betrayed her, so she placed a curse on him and all those of his blood. Because he rejected her love, she tore his soul in half, so he would have to find that one person that was the other half of himself. But he would never love another _woman_ again, to find true love, the more he looked for himself the less the chances, only someone who loved him unconditionally could introduce him to his soul-mate. Then found out she was pregnant with his children, twins. The curse she had placed was unable to be revoked, so she modified it. Each child’s soul would be spilt in four, one part for them, one part for their twin and one part for their soul-mate and one part for their twins soul-mate. Only their twin would be able to bring them to their soul-mate. Each set of twins would be one male and one female. Always the twins would be lovers of the same sex. Examples are, I’m gay, I love males, Merri was straight, she loved males. In our mother’s generation, is was the opposite, Lulu loved females, so did uncle Athan. The twist is that the twins who loves the same sex that they were, would be the ones to have children.

To put it simply. I have half a soul, part is mine and part is Merri’s. Out there somewhere are two normal people, destined to be Merri’s and my soul-mates, carrying around an extra two quarter souls each. When Merri died, my only chance of finding my soul-mate died, too. I would only ever have half a soul. I would be the only one to have children and any children conceived from my sperm will be twins and subject to the same curse.

Of course, there is the redemption clause. There’s always a redemption clause on a curse. In our case, if we can have 3 adult generations together with our soul-mates, in one place, physically connected, we can accept the curse and in doing so that negates the curse. Pity family disputes are rampant. When you are that close emotionally to someone else, you know all their sore points, just as they know all of yours. You often need a great deal of distance to lessen that. Lulu only spoke to Athan 2 or 3 times a year, they only saw each other every other year, sometimes less.

Knowing that I will never know the love of my life, my Heart, is as upsetting as knowing I will never see Merri again. And then there’s Merri’s Heart. I knew it, but was so scared to say it. Christian is Merri’s Heart and now he’s never gonna meet her. All because something went wrong in Anthony James’s life and he decided that the best way to fix it was to kill his children and their mother. Oh, God. That is wrong on so many levels.

We watched the news, so we knew he’d been arrested for my murder and was being held in custody to await trial. Nothing was mentioned about Merri and Lulu’s murder though or their having been shot. I want to be there when he’s sentenced for my murder, I want him to see me in front of him, when the judge says he murdered me, and he knows that he failed, that I lived in spite of him. Call it revenge, call it poetic justice, whatever, I want him to know that no matter how good he thought he was, a 15 year boy outwitted him, a U.S. Marshall. I might have had help, but still… He failed and I want him to know it.

But I couldn’t deal with that now. Right now, I had two little girls wrapped around me. I defy anyone, male or female, to withstand two tiny, curly-haired, blonde girls with big blue eyes. I didn’t stand a chance. I knew it, too. It took me a while but I finally ran our of tears. When I did, I pulled Katherine up from where she sat on my feet and slid an arm around her. I held both girls close and wriggled my way out of the car. As we headed inside, we must have looked like some multi-legged thing, if anyone outside the family had seen us. KatyCat had a head buried on each side of my neck with one arm around me and one arm around each other. Their legs swung about as the tried to work out a way to both get their legs around my waist.

By the time they’d figured it out, we were inside, I stopped in the living room and folded us carefully onto one of the sofas. After a few minutes of quiet, the rest of my family came into the room. They settled themselves on various pieces of furniture, Michael and Marianne sharing one of the big recliners, Christian on one side of me and Anderson on the other side. Mrs Parker sat on another sofa opposite us. They were all silent for a bit, just letting me get myself back in the right headspace. We stayed that way for a few minutes, before Mrs P started to get restless. She was so energetic she never seemed to stop moving.

Marianne ended up taking her and the girls, to show them the bedrooms. They would get to choose which room they wanted. We would talk to them about picking furniture another day. Mrs P also spent some time talking to KatyCat, she talked to them about the foster family, about staying with us, about being part of our family. They told her how the foster family’s son would come and take the other girl away in the night, how they were scared that he would take one of them, they had never been apart. How the big girl, Lucy, got up one night and heard them crying and came to see what was wrong, how they told her that Tim had taken Samantha to his room. Lucy woke the entire house, including the parents, who’d been very angry and called Mrs P and the police.

The girls were upset and crying from talking about this, but calmed down as soon Anderson sat with them. Mrs Parker was upset by this, too. I think she felt that she’s failed the girls by placing them in a family that frightened them. That was over, now. Now they were ours and we were keeping them. Just like we were keeping Anderson.

While Marianne and Mrs P were talking to the girls, Anderson had sidled up to Michael.

“Marianne said to think about you adopting me. I want that, but I still want to keep my last name. Do I have to change it?”

“No, Anderson. You can keep your last name. Do you want to keep it as your surname or would you like it as a middle name? Just because we adopt you doesn’t mean that you have to take our surname. Yes, Thomas did, but Christian didn’t. And you don’t have to if you don’t want to. We will never force you to do anything you don’t want to.”

“Oh… I…” he took a deep breath. “My father loved me and my mom, he did. My mom died in a car crash when I was little. Dad raised by himself. He loved me and I loved him. He was a good dad, but he couldn’t live without mom. He drank when he could afford to, but he never hurt me. Finally Social Services took me away from him, because of his drinking, six weeks later he was dead. He broke into a bottle-shop and cut his arm on some glass, he died from an infection. The last time I saw him, was on my 13th birthday. He took me on a picnic, he said that no matter what I did, what I become or what happened to me, he would always love me.” He took a few more deep breathes, obviously trying to stay in control of his emotions.

“I would like to keep his name, but as a middle name. I want to be a Chamberlin, like you. I want to be like you, I want to be the sort of man that helps other people, the sort of man my dad would be proud of.” His fear of men, or at least of Michael, was gone.

Michael put his arms around Anderson a hugged him gently. “Your dad would be proud of you. I am proud of you. Those two little girls needed you and you stepped up to the plate for them. You are the sort of man who helps people, you always will be. Never doubt that, Anderson. Never. You are a good man.” You had to believe Michael. You just had to.

That was when we heard the girls crying. Michael nudged Anderson and he shuffled in the direction of our room. He hadn’t had any more pain meds since we’d left home earlier in the morning. He needed to have them with food, so I started to think about what we would have for lunch. Something easy, finger foods maybe? Oh, yes. Sausage sizzlers. We had plenty of bread, onions, salads and sides to go with sausages. That was lunch dealt with. If only everything else was that simple.

The rest of the day was spent in settling Anderson and KatyCat into our family. Marianne and the girls went online and looked at furniture for their room. After talking to Anderson some more, Michael decided that we would paint their room a base colour and that they could each have one wall to paint whatever colour they wanted. Immediately they started arguing and debating colour. Michael put a stop to their discussion by telling them that he wouldn’t buy the paint until the next weekend and that they had to tell him the same colour for 4 days in a row. If they changed their minds then that wasn’t the colour they really wanted to start with.

I talked to the three of them about schooling. Anderson was smart, he’d tested out in the mid-triple figures, but the real surprise were the girls. They were by far the smartest in our family. They hadn’t been tested yet, not properly anyway, but Mrs P had reports from the schools they had been to. The results were right up there with kids far older than them, they were almost at my level. We needed to get them tested, properly, unfortunately they were still too young for that. They were really going to be a challenge, not just for Marianne and Michael, but for me, too, as I was in charge of education. I would just have to treat them as if they _had_ been tested _and_ as high as I thought they were going to be.

We needed to make some extensions to the study area to cater to the size of the family. Luckily that wasn’t going to be too difficult, the room was plenty big enough. All that was needed was more desk-space and a couple extra computers. I’d make sure that everyone in the family was computer literate.

In addition to our education, I was also tasked with self-defence. And the good thing about that was, I _knew_ that there wasn’t anyone close, that was better than me. While we’d only been here for 5 weeks, we’d been to every Dojo and martial arts training centre in the area, there’d been only one that was up to my level. They had been more than slightly surprised to find, given my age, that I was proficient in more than one style, that I was master-level of 2 different styles and black-belt in a third. And that I still wanted to learn more, I think that surprised them the most.

The next few weeks were spent working out schedules. Besides our study sessions there were many outside events booked. Anderson had a few doctors appointments. He and the girls had Social Services required counselling sessions. Us boys joined sports clubs. Archery, football, athletics, swimming and basketball. The girls had swimming, dance and music lessons. Michael worked from home as an accountant and Marianne was doing some external classes towards her degree. Routine was going to be very important.

I went for a run every morning and before we’d had the girls for a week, Christian joined me. I think he needed to have some ‘boy’ time without the girls, plus of course he wasn’t used to having so many people around him. Anderson told us straight up that he’d not been allowed to go running since his father died. He wanted to join us but knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up with me. Mind you, neither could Christian. I wasn’t sure that even Michael could. Long distance running was something my body was designed for.

Each of us had an outlet for our excess energy. Christian’s was swimming, he was so glad this place had a lap pool. Anderson was the most amazing artist, it didn’t matter what type of medium, he could use it. KatyCat chased Bongo and each other, it was clear they were going to be athletic, too. Marianne immersed herself in the garden, she was happiest with her hands in the soil. Michael discovered wood working and spent a lot of his free time in one of the outbuildings, every so often he’d appear with a new piece of furniture or a carving for one of us. I’d made a dojo in another shed and that was where I went whenever I needed to unwind. I usually wasn’t alone for long before someone turned up to practice or spar with me, they were all getting quite good at it, too.

Mrs P came to us a week before Christmas asking if we would take a teenage girl, short-term. She had been with a foster mother who was going to be in hospital rehab until mid-February, but she was scheduled to go to college towards the end of January. Of course Michael said, yes. That was the start of a stream of kids coming into our home.

When Tobias started walking, not long after Christmas, our lives became a mad-house. He was off and running within days and after we lost him twice, we made sure that someone was on ‘Tobias-duty’ every day, we had a roster so no-one got to skip out on their watch. We rarely included the foster kids in this, mostly because we didn’t know when they would arrive or when they would be leaving us. Clare was with us for just shy of 6 weeks and as we knew exactly when she was leaving, we did give her a couple of ‘Tobias’ days, but not many.

The only other kid who was in our roster was Bobby, he got a chance when Christian and Anderson both had a football on the same day, Christian twisted his ankle and had ‘Tobias-duty’ the next day, Bobby had volunteered to be Christian’s legs. Ironically he was the one who finally came up with a nickname for Christian. I think the first time was an accident, he’d meant to say ‘Christian’, but instead ‘Christie’ came out. Tobias picked it up and that was the end of it. Christian had become Christie. Christie de'Belle. Looking back I’m amazed that no-one came up with ‘Tinker Bell’.

Christmas was both very difficult and very easy. Yes, I missed Merri and Lulu, but I was also very grateful to be surrounded by the family I now had. On Christmas morning Michael had nearly destroyed me, by bringing out presents from Lulu, Merri and other members of Ricky’s family. Gio had asked one of his sons, Fabrizio, to raid their house in the days after the shooting and grab birthday and Christmas presents.

To open a present and see something that I just knew Merri had chosen was shocking, more shocking was to see the gift I had given her the morning of our birthday.

I’d given her a necklace with a tiny world globe on it, to symbolize her name, ‘Merridiann’ and she given me a matching necklace with an Aegishjalmur or Viking ‘Helm of Awe’ she’d had made in platinum with an emerald in the center. It was a not-so-subtle dig at how easily I became skilled at most things I tried and how I liked throwing metal things around. The globe I’d had made for Merri was also in platinum and had a sphere of Chrysolite inside it. Chrysolite is our birthstone as well as being a focus-stone. She’d had an emerald crafted into mine because she knew that I didn’t need a focus-stone. Mine had obviously come off when Lulu had pushed me through the window. I’d only worn it for a few hours, but I caught myself reaching for it for days. I wondered often, how had Merri’s come off?

Christmas morning I woke and there on my pillow was Merri’s globe. Over three months since I had seen her and the pain was still like an open wound.

Would it ever get any easier?

Did I really want it to?

Amongst the other gifts I got that Christmas, was a watch from Lulu, a set of throwing knives from Grandda and a wrist cuff that Merri had made herself. When I put it on for the first time, it scared the blazes out of Michael and Clare, who had only been with us for a week at that point, she was staying until college started at the end of January. The moment I opened the box I knew it was from Merri, it had an Aegishjalmur on it, too, it was a white metal and taking into account our Gypsy liking for treasure, I assumed it was platinum, as well. I didn’t even give it a thought, I just slipped it on and murmured a sealing cantata.

As I whispered, light flashed and the metal seemed to melt and re-shape itself around my wrist. The emeralds and gold slid about until they settled on the inside, in the shape of Merri’s globe and my Aegishjalmur, one above the other. Clare yelled and jumped for me, her yell had Michael looking over in time to see what appeared to be molten metal on my arm. By the time they had reached me the cuff was set and I was looking at it in shock. I’d expected it to clip shut as it had a hinge and clasp, but Merri must have had Grandda help her with the making and charming of it, she was nowhere near this level of skill.

Michael grabbed my arm, looking closely at the cuff, it flowed seamlessly around my wrist, hinge and clasp gone. He asked if the watch was going to do the same. I wouldn’t know until I put it on and said the cantata. Guess what? It did! That meant they weren’t going to come off without the right incantation. Clare sat and shook until we distracted her with gifts, but she continued to give me strange glances all day. Later Michael said that she’d came to him and asked what exactly had happened? He’d given her some very basic details and said that they were gifts from some deceased gypsies. He didn’t lie, he said, but it certainly felt like it.

Time raced by. We had a number of kids through the house. Most of them didn’t stay. They were short term, either because of age or they had been permanently placed, but for some reason or other weren’t able to go there immediately. By the time July came around, there had been 8 girls and 5 boys that had stayed with us, most of them had been with us for less than a week, only Clare stayed for more than a month. Bobby was only with us for 3-4 weeks, before heading to college, but he became ours and would come home for holidays.

Towards the end of July, Michael told Mrs P that we would be leaving the area soon, probably in September or early October. He had bought a plot of land on the north-east edge of Maple Ridge, about an hour from Vancouver, back before Christmas.

Our family spent a heap of time over Christmas designing what we wanted. Marianne made sure that there was plenty of room for more foster kids, temporary and even permanent. Michael added self contained, free standing cabins for Christie, Anderson and myself, with a few extras just in case. He said we were growing up and would soon want a personal space of our own. We had thought this through very carefully and decided that we would be as ecologically sustainable as we could. Solar panels were ok, but in the middle of a Canadian winter, sun can be rare, so needed other ideas, too. Michael stole ideas from all over the world. It was decided that we could look into eco-architecture, maybe setting up a business, after the move.

Early August Mrs P asked for a new permanent address, she said it was so she could update our file, as we would have to have a case manager in British Colombia, but I wondered. As she pulled out of the drive, she had the biggest grin on her face.

Nothing more was said about our move and we continued to have short-stay foster kids, Clare and Bobby wrote every few weeks, both came to see us over holidays. They had become ours. Clare was away, studying medicine at a college in Montréal, but Bobby was studying at a local Calgary college. When we told them about the move, they both asked Michael if he could transfer them to a Vancouver college, as they wanted to have us, their chosen family, close by. Michael spoke to the college deans and admin offices and it was done. Bobby would transfer about a week after our move, Clare a few days later.


	8. Chapter 8

Sunday, August 08, 2009 – Monday, August 17, 2009

 

21 today. Wow. Great.

Times like these that I miss Merri even more. I mean, birthdays are important. You know? Milestones in your life. And the most important person in my life isn’t here. That open wound isn’t going to heal on its own, not now, but I was learning to live with the pain. It helped to have Christie close, he balanced me.

I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I’d made different choices. I chose to run with Michael. I chose to go into the cabin after Marianne. I chose to stay with them both. I chose not to go to the police. I chose to trust Michael and Marianne. I chose to help Michael with money changing. I chose to rescue Christian.

Would I be alive? Would Marianne be alive? Would Christian be alive?

Maybe. Maybe not.

One thing is certain, though. The choices we’ve made have changed not just our lives, but also the lives of all the kids that have come through our home. I can’t regret the choices I’ve made, not when there are so many people that have been positively affected.

I’ve learnt that I can shut the past away, sometimes. Sometimes though, like today, I can’t. Today, Merri is in the front of my mind, her and Lulu. It’s not that it’s our birthday, though. I just have days where Merri is all I can think about and how much I still miss her. If we weren’t home schooled, I’d have been in serious trouble with some teachers. Thank God for Marianne, she understands, maybe not quite the way I feel but still she gets me and what Merri means to me.

God, I was getting soppy. Enough already!

 

 

Michael offered Christie and I a few days here on Prince Edward Island, before the rest of the family turn up for the Canada Games. That’s gonna be a mammoth undertaking for the family. Just at the moment we have a large house of foster kids, there’s 3 boys, Jeff, Liam and Mitch as well as 4 girls, Surian, Amanda, Staci and Rebecca. Along with us permanents, Sarah, Christie, Tobias, KatyCat, Bobby, Clare and me. Clare has finished her medical training and now works at the local hospital in the Emergency Room, but still lives with us in her own cabin. Bobby’s still at college, he’s doing law, he had a few setbacks, got into the wrong crowd, that sort of thing, but he’s sorted himself out and should finish up next year. Anderson has gone into the military, something hush-hush, so we rarely hear from him. He just appears, one morning, we come to breakfast and there he is. Never mentions what he’s done or where he’s been, just spends time with each of us and then disappears again. We worry, but for all we know he could be sitting in an office reading reports everyday. Nah, not likely, but we can’t live his life for him. We all make our own choices.

Oh, speaking of choices, Michael said he is going to offer Surian and Liam _the_ choice today. Adoption that is. Mrs P will make it happen. Thank God for Mrs P! We’d been in Maple Ridge for about a month and Michael was starting to get pushy with Social Services, as they had yet to assign us a case worker, even though we had 3 foster kids at that point, then one day they rang and said that the case worker was bringing us a new child. Michael started to hit the roof. _Until_ … I opened the front door and there was Mrs P and a young girl, about 10 or 11 years old. I whooped and grabbed Mrs P, hugging her and then yelling for the others. We were so glad to see her. She’d known that we would at least meet the girl, her name was Hannah, I think. She didn’t stay with us, she needed a small family and we were _definitely_ a big one. Mrs P found the right place for her and _many_ more kids for us.

How did she come to be in Vancouver? Well, Mrs P’s husband was offered a transfer to Vancouver but when Mrs P started working with us, they had talked it over and put it off. Then when Michael told her we were moving, they accepted the transfer and Mrs P informed Social Services that she was going to be continuing to be our case worker, so Social Services hadn’t really tried to get someone to fill in for her. They just forgot to tell Michael, though. Since then we’ve had 8 to 10 kids each year. Some stayed and some didn’t. Many of them had other family, so we would have these strange days where there would be two sets of families in our house. We only offered one of those kids the choice, we knew her family would let her go given half a chance. Laura took the chance too, she became ours. She’s enrolled at college in Montreal for the next few years, but comes home for holidays.

As for the rest of the foster kids, yeah, we offered some of them the choice, but most of them were just glad to have us in the background. Two of them took the offer. Darrel, we still have, he’s married now and lives in Maple Ridge, Marianne was furious with him for a bit, he got his girlfriend, Jenni, pregnant! Dar’s working with the rest of us, but they wanted their own space, so they live on the other side of town. Matty is still a sad spot for us. The day after his adoption was finalised, he was diagnosed with Leukaemia. He fought it for nearly a year but we still lost him, two days after his 8th birthday. He was such a brave little guy, he made sure that we all got a letter from him, telling us how he felt about us. We miss him.

 

I’m standing on the tiny deck, looking down on the streets, when Christie comes through the door of our suite. He’s got this look on his face, I know I’m not going to like whatever he’s got to say.

“Okay. This is all kinds of weird.”

“What do you mean? Weird? How?”

Christie sat me down and dropped on the seat across from me.

“I’m heading from the art supplies place to that sporting shop we checked out earlier and I heard these two guys in front of me talking. They’re ordinary guys, nothing special or anything. But what caught me was what they were saying, you know?”

“No. What were they talking about?”

“You. Bro, they were talking about you!”

“What? So?”

“You as in Ricky!”

“Ricky?! Man, did get a picture of them? Ricky must have gone to school with one of them.”

“No. Thomas. They are older than us, by lots. I didn’t take a picture, not after listening to them, anyway.”

“What did they say?”

“If you’d shut up long enough, I’d tell you!” Oops, Christie doesn’t yell at people very often, this was important stuff.

“These guys were talking about Anthony James, apparently one of them was in Chicago when the shooting happened. The other has never left Canada. The first said that he had been offered a job as a gardener at a hotel in the US the day after the shooting and figured that a smaller town was safer than a large city. He said the place was Core Allen, or something like that.”

“Coeur D’Alene, Christie. We stopped there for a couple of days waiting for Tonio to bring our papers and the RV.”

“Oh. Okay. Anyway, he was a gardener there, he said he saw Ricky running early one morning. Didn’t think anything of it at the time, but a couple of days later, he saw an interview with Lulu and they showed a picture of Merri and Ricky and the gardener recognised him. The job didn’t work out for him, so when he left there he went back to Chicago and went looking for Lulu. This guy says Lulu Western cursed him. He says he went to her and told that he had seen Ricky at a hotel in Idaho and that she went off at him. Cursed him with truth. Like you did to that Marciano man. Only he says he wasn’t lying. That he did see Ricky. He wanted nothing from her, just to tell her he’d seen Ricky. He didn’t understand what she’d done or why, but he still carries the knife with him. He pulled a steak knife from his boot to show the other guy.”

We talked back and forth for an hour or so, trying to find this guy’s angle, before Christie sat up straight with a shocked look on his face.

“Oh God. I just figured it out!”

“What?”

“He had to have seen Merri, Ricky and Lulu on TV. Right?”

“Yeah. So?”

“To have seen them on TV, it had to be after the shooting. Right?”

“Right.” Where was he going with this?

“He approached Lulu after seeing her on TV. Right?”

“Right.” I still wasn’t getting it.

He reached over and smacked me upside the head.

“Start using your brain, Thomas! He spoke to Lulu after seeing her on TV. She was on TV after the shooting.” Obviously I still looked blank. “How could she be on TV if Anthony James killed her?”

Oh, God! Now I got it! I reached for my laptop and fired it up. I had work to do. Minutes later I had confusing answers. Lulu appeared on TV nine days after the shooting, when she was being discharged from a hospital. But there was nothing about Merri. Not that she was dead. Not that she was alive. Just. Nothing. There was nothing about Lulu after that either. No change of address, no news reports. Nothing. Again.

While I was trolling the net, Christie rang Michael and told him what had happened and what I had found about Lulu so far. Michael said that he would call Gio and get him to look into it locally, Gio still being in Chicago. He also said that the family would be there in the morning, about 11-ish. They were flying in to Charlottetown just before 10am. He had chartered a plane, as given the size of our family, it was cheaper to hire than buy tickets. With a mini-bus booked at the airport, they had transport organised.

When they got in the next morning, we had done he check-in for them and met the clan in the lobby. It took three trips in the lifts to get them and all their luggage to our floor. We’d booked almost the entire floor! Each of the foster kids got a room to themselves, Michael had got a suite for KatyCat, Tobias, Sarah, Marianne and himself. Along with the suite that Christie and I had, that only left three rooms on this floor and one of those was a conference room that we were going to use as a family gathering room.

We spent the next few days waiting for Gio to do his thing, catching up with the clan, finding out about sports, crushes and business updates, that sort of thing.

We were the ChamberGroup now. Eco housing, gated communities, high tech solutions for odd problems. The ChamberGroup had fingers in many different fields. Building, electronics, housing, security, driving and even private education.

There were too many kids for Marianne or I to handle alone. Given that I was working within the ChamberGroup now, I didn’t have a lot of time to monitor the home school, so Michael found a couple of semi-retired teachers and got a permit from Education Canada (or whatever it is), put up a building and now we have a private school. Many of our employee’s kids go to our school, it makes things easier for them, they know exactly where their kids are.

There are a few kids that don’t belong to us or our staff, but instead live nearby, about six, I think. Mostly neighbours, but one kid comes from across the other side of town, his parents actually came to us and applied for a position for him in our school, as he’d had trouble at the public schools. They never said why, but it only took Anderson and I seconds to see the kid was gay. Michael paid a visit to the school and spoke to the principal, but the man couldn’t care less about one kid being bullied. Michael offered to solve the problem but the principal wasn’t interested. A year later we were asked by the new principal for help to stopping the bullying. I was still slightly on the small side for my age so I could drop back a grade or three to help. Only the principal knew why I was there, no teachers, no students, she didn’t want anyone to know. Okay, a couple of the students knew me from sports and the like, but thought I was just a transfer.

I let it slip early on that I was gay and waited for the thugs to take the bait. It only took a few days. They started pushing me around, making smart remarks, basically trying to make my life miserable. It was so funny. By the end of the first week, they thought that they had me sufficiently cowed that they could threaten me with outing if I didn’t meet them where they wanted. I knew they were responsible for beating at least three kids, so I agreed to their meeting and even turned up on time, but that was where they lost the control, as I brought Christie and Anderson with me. But when I told them to hang back, I said it loud enough for the thugs to hear. When I went to them and told them that I wanted them to stop bullying kids, they laughed. I made them a deal. I would fight them, all of them, at the same time, if I won, the bullying stopped, if they won, I would leave.

Four of the five of them thought that was a great joke, but one guy, he’d been paying a little more attention and I could see that he recognised the way I moved. He’d had some training, maybe not a lot, but some. He got out of the way, fast. Ten minutes later, he was up a tree, staying out of the way, the ringleader was waiting for an ambulance and his three thugs were unconscious, draped across various parts of the playground. Nothing was ever said, but the bullying stopped.

Things have been good, business wise, we now employ about 40 families. Where possible Michael likes to employ husbands and wives, or wives or husbands or whatever combo the family is. There’s two lesbian couples, three gay couples and some single parents families in there too. We have three mentally disabled workers, too and one amputee. Some of their children have come to work for us and others we have sponsored for college, we want to take our business into the future and to do that we need to have employee’s that are educated and innovative as well as loyal. We’ve bought out a couple of smaller business’ that were struggling to keep their technology up to date, too. What we’re working right now is a keyless entry for a gated community, the idea is for the system is to recognise the resident’s cars or faces, still working out which way is the securest to go.

But me, I mostly trained people for personal security, bodyguards, that sort of thing. I got some great looks from new trainees. They never picked me as the primary trainer, never. I have a team of four working with me and the usual schedule is for them to start the class and me to watch for a bit. Then while they are having their first break, I get in a warm up and start practising. When they come back in I get to throw the students in the deep end. By the end of the day, they are kinda in shock. Yeah, we’ve had a couple over the years that have left, but they were no loss. From day 2 it’s full on and most of the trainees are very keen to learn.

Christie teaches defensive and offensive driving. He doesn’t have as many classes per year as I do, but there are frequently overlapping trainees. He’s taken it on himself to be an intermediary between me and everyone else since the public school bully thing. Very protective, not just of me, but everyone in the family. He needs us to be safe or he feels unsafe. It a holdover from the time the Sheriff had him.

Oh, the Sheriff? He tried to turn the blackmail back on Luther. Fail. Now he’s out of a job and on the watch lists for white slavery and paedophiles. Stupid. Unfortunately, I don’t think Christie is ever going to really leave it behind him. Talking is not easy for him, not a lot anyway and he can’t handle people being bullied or threatened. He has to step in and while he’s not as good at hand-to-hand as I am, he's still dangerous. On top of that he has a bit of a temper, he doesn’t lose it often, but when he does? Watch out! Thank God, he gives us plenty of warning.

Luther comes to visit regular, not every month, but at least quarterly. He’s married now, to a sweet girl, Zarly, who was in one of Marianne’s classes at college, from before she left Chicago. I’ve always wondered how they met, but not enough to be rude and ask. They are expecting their first baby in a few weeks, so we won’t see them until after the birth. The doctors know what they are having but they don’t, not yet anyway.

Michael and Marianne have had a baby, too, just two months ago, they called her Sarah. She’s tiny, blonde and bubbly. Always smiling and laughing. Tobias and KatyCat adore her. Actually, I think we all do. The only one that’s not seen her yet is Anderson.

I wonder when he’ll come home next?

 

We had a couple of fun days with the clan in the lead up to the opening ceremony, checking out the different venues and how to get to them, most of the clan were big enough to go to events by themselves, Tobias might only be 7 but the twins were 13 now and very good at looking after themselves. I have them well trained, they fight as a team, like Merri and I did, just one of the benefits of being a twin. All the rest were older, as we tended to take in older kids that had had problems with other families, we gave them a chance and for most of them that’s all they wanted, a chance.

The games opening were great. Spectacular and fun, we laughed, oohed and ahh-ed, blown away, just like everyone else. We came spilling out of the stadium in the middle of the crowd. Tobias standing on my shoulders, trying to do a balancing act. We’d brought the bus, as the ceremony finished late and because we knew that Tobias and Sarah would be asleep before we got back to the hotel and that Liam would be tired of getting about on his crutches. He wasn’t all that far from ditching them, but he still tired easily. The accident that killed his family nearly put him in a wheelchair for life. It would have if Mrs P hadn’t brought him to us. Social Services just haven’t got the money or the manpower to push for the type of treatment that he needed. Marianne pushed and now Liam can walk about easily on crutches and slowly without them for short (very short) distances.

There weren’t many cars in the car park as public transport was free tonight, there were buses in just about every available space, so we decided to wait for most of them to load up and go before we headed back to the hotel.

Beep beep.

My phone alerted me of an incoming text. My first thought was that Gio was texting me, but I remembered that Michael said that Gio would call him later tonight. So why would he text me, too? If not him, who else could it be? Wrong number? Probably. I never gave this number out, not to friends, staff or even boyfriends. This number was for family only.

 

I need backup.

7am

Cnr Rue de Bienville & Rue Fraser

Boucherville

Montreal

 

That was it. Nothing else. I showed it to Christie and Michael. Like me, they were scratching their heads. None of us had any idea who it was from. I was about to text back asking who it was, when a second text came through.

 

Hire a plane.

I need you, brothers.

 

Oh, shit. Anderson! It had to be!

No-one else called us ‘brother’, they all said ‘bro’. That changed everything. I spoke to Michael quickly, he said to head straight for the airport. He’d call ahead and get the plane he’d chartered cleared for Montreal and get a hire car to meet us there. We gave him the keys to our rooms, knowing that he’d see to packing up for us and take with them if we didn’t come back here. If we needed clothes, Christie could buy them for us. We flagged a taxi down and told the driver to head to the airport. As we joined the traffic queue to leave the stadium, I sent a reply text.

 

On our way.

ETA when known.

 

The taxi driver told us, with the current traffic it would take an hour or more to get to Charlottetown airport, would we prefer Summerside airport, it was only few miles away. I rang Michael to see if he could get us a charter plane at late notice at Summerside. We had until we reached the highway to make that decision and all the busses meant that we had a few minutes before we got to that point. Michael called back when we were only a couple of blocks from the highway. He’d got a plane for us at Summerside. A Cessna Citation X would be cleared for departure in 55 minutes. Long enough for us to get there and clear the terminal. It would wait for us at Montréal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and take us back to Pitt Meadows Airport, 25 minutes from home. He’d take our luggage home for us.

The flight was going to take just over 95 minutes, putting us on the ground in Montréal and through the terminal there, at roughly 1am. Christie and I debated getting a hotel room for the remains of the night, but ended up deciding to leave that to Anderson. I sent him another text.

 

Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

Monarch Air Group

Charter terminal 2

1.15am

 

What the hell was going on?

As we exited through security, Anderson was there to meet us. He looked tired. Tired and worried. Anderson doesn’t do worried. It must be serious.

“What’s going on? Backup for what?”

Anderson looked at Christie and then me and shook his head.

“Not here, brothers. I got us a motel room a couple of blocks from Trey’s. We can talk there. Please?”

Please? From Anderson? Okay, this is definitely serious. I mean, he’s polite. At least with everyone but Christie and me. To say ‘please’ to us means this is very important.

“We can wait.” Christie answered for both of us. I was okay with that. For now.

Who’s Trey...?

Only took us maybe five minutes, to reach the hotel room that Anderson had. Once we were inside, Christie and I turned to Anderson for answers.

“Backup for what? Who is Trey? What’s going on?”

“Easy, brothers.” Anderson was looking very uncomfortable.

“Start talking.” Even Christie wanted answers.

“Okay… A year ago, I went undercover here in Montréal. Military secrets were being released in academic journals. There was a college professor, who seemed to be responsible, but he was denying it. I was sent undercover to find proof. While he was not responsible and I didn’t find who was responsible, one of my teammates figured out who it was. However, I did find Trey. He is a very honest person, almost scrupulously honest. You will like him, brothers. Since then, I’ve seen him as often as I’ve been home. And that was fine.

But just recently, his family are pushing him to do what they consider the right thing. Meaning, marry and have children. When he told me, he said that they didn’t care that he was gay. Marriage was marriage and kids were kids, they didn’t care about the how’s. This morning, I received an e-mail from him, via his brother, his parents have organised a marriage, to take place at the end of the month. He’s been stopped from communicating with anyone outside his family, but his eldest brother is a good guy and wants to help, so he forwarded Trey’s email and then rang me to see what I plan to do about this. Dean and I have talked about this for most of the day and the only solution we can find that covers all possibilities is this…

Dean is going to go to the house about 6am, he will accuse Trey of breaking their father’s rules by trying to send emails via Dean, he will then suggest that as Trey can’t be trusted with internet, and to stop him from being tempted to do it again, his computer, phone and tablet etc., should be taken off of him. Dean will volunteer to take them with him. He will leave with them and text me as soon as he’s a block away.”

Anderson got to his feet and stood in front of the doors to the deck.

“Then it up to us. Normally Trey and his father go running each morning around 6.30 am. But Dean thinks that his accusations may change that. If they do go, then we decided that the easiest and least difficult option is to, basically kidnap Trey. He and his father have a set route they run, without deviation, so Dean and I have scouted and worked out where and when to hit. If Dean’s right and they don’t go, then we need to get into the house, somehow. Thomas, you’re the most devious of us, you come up with something. Please?”

Wow. Two ‘please’ in a matter of minutes. Anderson means it.

“Have you got a picture of him? Is he still taking classes or have the family stopped that? What about friends? Is he allowed to see anyone?”

“Dean says their father dropped Trey from classes this week. No friends. He’s not allowed to see anyone but family.” He was struggling to stay calm as he pulled his cell out and showed us pictures of a red-headed young man and himself. He also showed us images of other family members, saying Dean had forwarded them so we knew who was who. Mother, Father, Dean, another brother and Trey’s twin. More twins. Thankfully they were fraternal and not identical, the twin being a blonde and of a heavier build than the redhead.

“Do they know any of his college friends?”

“Not according to Dean, no.”

“Good. Then Christie and I can be concerned classmates bringing lecture notes for him. Or the other option is to be paramilitary, use your previous mission as a cover, that Trey is not a suspect in your case but he’s being taken for questioning. That gives us reason to have weapons and be covert-ish about collecting him. But I agree that the kidnap option is the least invasive.”

“Yes and no.” Christie put in.

“What do you mean?”

“Combine two options. If they go running, we should do the paramilitary styled kidnap.”

Bang. The whole plan just fell into place in my mind. Just like that. Wow. I will never get used to that.

Regardless of whether they go running or not we would do the Para-styled kidnapping. I spent the next hour and a half explaining to the two of them just exactly what we were going to do and what we needed to have to do it. Anderson made two phone calls and was told everything would be ready for us by the time we got to a pick up zone. Christie suggested that Dean be alerted but Anderson felt that his surprise should be genuine and while I agreed, I thought that he should be told that we had a plan together and would be ready to go as soon as Anderson received his text, just not what is was. Dean was told that Trey would be with Anderson by 7.15 am, but nothing more. His reaction had to be genuine.

“God’s above. You’ve got a wicked mind, brother.” Anderson just shook his at head me. You’d think he would be used to the way mind worked by now, but, nooo. Obviously not.

It was now just after 3am and while we were tired, we also knew that we needed to push past it. We needed to go with Anderson to collect the equipment, we had to be comfortable, familiar, with it. In addition to the equipment that Anderson’s teammates provided, we needed two vans and two cars. It appeared that Anderson’ teammates had transport under control.

Dean texted Anderson at 5.45 am as he left his place, this gave us time to get into first position. First position was dependant on Trey and his father going running and we could see the house from it. If they didn’t exit the house by 7.05 am, we would move to plan B. This had us presenting at the house forcefully.

We saw Dean pull his car into the drive and watched him stalk up to the door. The distance muffled any sound, but we could see a dog in the neighbour’s yard suddenly start jumping and barking, so we assumed that the argument was going to plan. Pity there was no way to let Trey know Dean hadn’t betrayed him. At least not yet. Dean and another young man came out of the house within minutes, carrying two boxes, a laptop bag and a suitcase. Looked like Dean had managed to get some of Trey’s clothes, too. Good.

The car fishtailed and left skid-marks on the road as Dean drove off at 6.20am. We could still see the dog next door jumping, so knew that things were still volatile in the house. Now we just had to wait. It came down to how attached their father was to his routine. If they ran, we had a carefully scripted but very flexible plan. If they didn’t, our plan was significantly different.

At 6.57 am the front door of the house opened again and their father came out wearing running pants. We held our breath, the only thing we hadn’t got a clear plan for was if their father decided to run and Trey didn’t. Collectively we sighed, when Trey followed his father out the door and down the path, his red hair easily visible. He was slightly hunched, but moving freely, so hadn’t been beaten, which was good. We had to go through a major airport to get out of the city, yet.

They would head south on Bienville to Fraser, then down Quesnel and onto Jolliet and Nicolet before turning north on Samuel de Champlain. We would grab Trey between Samuel de Champlain and Rue Albanel, which was our route to the freeway. We would be on the freeway for less than a quarter mile. Anderson had roped in three of his teammates to help as well as Christie and I. We had two vans, one of which Anderson would be driving and other Jed, one of his teammates, would be driving. Christie and I would do the actual grab while Anderson’s other mates, Tim and Steve, would be snatching Trey’s father. Anderson was driving for them, he didn’t trust himself to be either in the van with Trey or the one grabbing Trey’s father. The father would be left cuffed and gagged in the one of the vans when we abandoned them, both vans having been stolen earlier in the night. There were two cars waiting for us, just a few blocks from the snatch site. Once we had changed cars, we were to meet Dean back at the airport and hopefully be in the air within two hours of Dean’s text.

Everything went according to plan and we had Trey in the van within seconds of pulling up behind the two runners. He was too shocked to fight us initially and by the time he’d realised what was happening, he was cuffed and blindfolded. He started to fight us as we stopped at the other cars, but Anderson just grabbed him and shoved him into the rear seat of the sedan, while Christie and I got in the front. We pulled our hoods off as we headed away from the vans. Anderson’s mates took the other car and went in a different direction. They would call the family home and alert them to what had happened, ensuring that Trey’s father would be found quickly. They would be cautioned that if they didn’t contact the police for 48 hours Trey would be released, unharmed. He was only taken for a specific length of time, so he could not interfere in a problematic mission. If they did contact police, Trey would be held until the mission was complete, which could be weeks, given its involved nature. If questioned all Trey’s father could say in addition to this, was that the men who had grabbed them both, used military ranks but no names.

Anderson removed his hood, but didn’t un-cuff or remove Trey’s blindfold, until we stopped beside Dean’s hatchback in the short term parking at the airport. Christie and I got out and while I helped Dean with Trey’s stuff, Christie got us a luggage trolley. We had a good 10 minute walk to the charter terminal from where we were.

We heard Trey’s squeal and then the crack as he slapped Anderson. Christie snickered as Dean and I laughed. Trey might look fragile and delicate, but don’t mistake that for weak. It took them a few minutes to emerge from the car and when they did Trey was flushed and Anderson had a silly grin on his face.

“Trey, love. These are my brothers. Thomas and Christie.” We each gave him a hug.

“Welcome to the family. Today notwithstanding, we are reasonably normal.” I said.

“Don’t listen to Thomas. There’s nothing normal about our family.” Christie reached out and scruffled my hair. He knew I hated that.

“Ah… Guys. If we don’t hustle, we’re gonna be late.” Dean’s comment got us all moving.

“Late for what?” Obviously Anderson hadn’t told Trey what else was happening today.

Anderson took Trey’s hand and followed us as we headed for the charter terminal. We eavesdropped unashamedly.

“We’re getting married, love. Christie has organised for an official to meet us at the terminal.”

“M-married…But what about the paperwork? Don’t we have to fill applications in and have it posted somewhere beforehand?” Trey asked.

“Yeah. But we stole the paperwork your father did and …altered… it. He might have only lodged it this week, but that’s not what the Court’s paperwork says. That has our names on it and is dated properly. We’re fine. The official that’s meeting us will complete the ceremony and will take the forms back to the courthouse for registration. That registration will be complete later today. Assuming that your family follow our directions, it’ll all be over before they are even aware of it.”

“Oh.” Poor Trey, he looked so confused. “But my things…”

“Got them here, Trey.” Dean gestured to the luggage trolley that Christie was pushing. “Your computer stuff and even some of your clothes.”

“Christie will see to replacing any clothing that’s missing.” I put in.

“Why Christie? Why not me? Why can’t I replace them?”

“Oh, you can, love. But Christie really likes shopping. God knows why. The rest of us stay out of his way and just carry things for him. Makes life interesting. Whatever else you do, don’t tick him off. You’ll end up wearing magenta or puce or some equally vile colour. Ugh!” Anderson spoke from experience. He’d only done that once, but once was enough to ensure it never happened again. Ever.

We made our way through the main terminal to the multi-faith prayer area where we met the woman who would officiate for Anderson and Trey. She had all the papers that were needed ready for them to sign and walked us through the procedure. Once she confirmed Anderson and Trey’s Id, she started. They both agreed to take the other as a spouse and Dean and Christie signed as their witnesses. Our stop in the prayer room was less than 15 minutes. Another 25 minutes and we were airborne. Again. This time we had roughly 5 hours before touchdown. Christie and I left Anderson and Trey to themselves and put our seats back and slept the sleep of the exhausted. Both of us had been awake for well over 24 hours by the time the Cessna climbed into the air.

Anderson woke us as the plane landed. The four of us staggered through the small terminal at Pitt Meadows Airport. Hailing a taxi, Anderson took an few minutes to load Trey’s boxes in the trunk, while the rest of us just piled in. 25 minutes later and the taxi pulled up to the gates of our home. Christie got out and entered the code for entry and the taxi headed up the drive. I swiped one of the business credit cards and the driver turned back towards town. None of us watched him go. We were too tired. Christie headed for his cabin as I went for mine. Anderson and Trey wandered in the general direction of Anderson’s cabin, but I was too tired to see if they reached it or not.


	9. Chapter 9

Wednesday, 07 August, 2013

 

My cell’s ringing woke me as dawn approached. I reached for it quickly, not wanting to wake ‘Remy. We had talked til late and it had been well after midnight before he fell asleep.

The image on the screen of my cell told me it was Anderson trying to get me.

“Yeah.” I grunted once the connection was made.

“We got a change in plans, brother.”

“What? How?” What now?

“We have to leave today.”

“No. No can do. Remy is in no condition to travel, Anderson. You know that.”

“I also know that as of midday, this hotel will be controlled by his father. We are not staying here, brother.”

“What?! Oh, crap. You’d better come up here and we’ll work it out face-to-face.”

“It’s already done, brother. Christie and I have sorted it. I’ll come up in 10 minutes and explain. That should be long enough for you two to say good morning and get decent.” With that he hung up on me, chuckling.

He and Christie have it sorted? Oh, God. What have they landed us in this time? The last time they planned something we had to pay to have the town’s entire sports complex re-turfed. Those two together are dangerous. And reckless.

I dropped the cell on the bedside chest and turned to wake my ‘Remy. He was laying with his head propped his hand, looking at me with a little smile. I reached out a hand and slid my fingers down his face, just barely touching.

“Good morning my ‘Remy. Did you sleep well?” Keep it light, if Anderson’s coming up, there’s no time for anything no matter how good either of us is feeling.

“Hmm… I did. Who’s calling you at this hour of the morning?”

“My brother Anderson. He’s in charge of security. We had planned to stay here until tomorrow, to give you a chance to heal some more, but he says that’s going to have to change. He’ll be here in 10 minutes. Just long enough for us to use the bathroom… And for this…”

I dipped my head and touched my lips to his, mindful of the damage those monsters had done to him. Lord. He tasted so good. I could lose myself in him so easily. I forced myself to pull back, we didn’t have time and he was still hurting. I tapped him on the nose with a finger and slid from the bed. Anderson said 10 minutes and he meant 10 minutes, he might not be military anymore, but he was definitely militant about being on time. I scrabbled through my bags for some jeans and a shirt to wear, before throwing a pair of sweats and a t-shirt on the bed for ‘Remy. He was so slight, they would swamp him, good thing they had a drawstring waist.

By the time Anderson knocked on the door of our suite, we were both dressed and debating what we wanted for breakfast. ‘Remy wanted coffee, but I wasn’t certain he should mix caffeine with the meds that Doc had left him. With Anderson there the issue was moot anyway.

“Brother. ‘Remy.”

“This is Anderson, ‘Remy. What’s going on, Anderson?” I needed to know. I needed to protect ‘Remy.

“Christie did an info search on de Silvary. He’s going to have control of this hotel as of midday today. We have to be out of here before then. Christie and I have spoken to the research team and the consensus is we get the hell out of Dodge. Now. None of them want to risk ‘Remy. They like him and don’t want de Silvary to get his hands on ‘Remy again. So, we talked as a group and have brought everything forward. Removalists are at the houses, like, right now. The team will meet for breakfast at 7 am. Gwen and Ann are the only ones not going to meet us. Gwen and her wife, Kallie, are meeting with Kallie’s physiotherapist and Trey to do a handover. Ann is Kallie’s daughter and is seeing to the removalists for them, as Kallie has some specialised equipment for her ongoing therapy. They will meet us at the airport at 9.45 am.” As he was speaking he was ticking things off on his tablet.

“Trey called Clare for a consult on Kallie’s condition as regards flying. It’s decided that the best way for Kallie is the GoGo, they both felt that Baby J is unsuitable.”

“Who’s baby j?” Remy didn’t know any of our nicknames for things, yet.

“Baby J. That’s what we call the jet. It’s a Boeing 737 BBJ. Boeing Business Jet customised for our private use. It seats 48 passengers, but Clare feels that the seats may be uncomfortable given the long-term damage to Kallie's back and legs. Trey suggested the GoGo, as the seats are a different style and the aisle wider. Christie and I concur. Blake and Clare flew out of Pitt Meadows last night. They landed with the GoGo just shy of midnight, so Blake is clear to fly this morning.”

“The GoGo is a Gulfstream jet that always seems to be on the GoGo.” As I explained the confused look first left Remy’s face and then returned.

“Who’s Blake?”

“Geez, Thomas. Didn’t you tell him anything? Blake is our sister Clare’s husband. He’s also one of four pilots working for us.” Anderson reached out and smacked my arm as he spoke.

“Anderson. Back off. I told him about me.”

“Whoa. The whole thing?” When Anderson joined the military we sat him down and told him the truth of our becoming a family.

“Yep. The whole thing. We just haven’t got caught up with the rest of the family yet. That’s all.”

“Okay. I’ll hold off on judgement then.”

“Please do, brother.”

“I’ve missed something.” Remy commented looking back and forth between Anderson and I.

“Unimportant, love, unimportant. Let’s get packed and ready to go. Where are we meeting everyone, Anderson?”

“We were going to meet them here, but Luke suggested we go straight to the airport. There’s not as many restaurants at Midway International as there is at O’Hare, but there’s still a half dozen to pick from. It’ll also make it easier for loading too. We can get food to go for Gwen, Kallie, Ann and Trey. We just have to order that when we first arrive. Christie is doing the pick-ups with a charter bus and driver, as we speak.”

Anderson’s cell beeped, he held up an hand as he read the text coming through.

“Okay… Bobby’s just finished up the paperwork, Christie says. He also said we’re taking the executive chef and the concierge from here with us. He’ll fill us in the details later. Do you know anything about this, Thomas?”

“Ah… No. But both of them have worked for de Silvary in the past. How open is the take-over? Would the staff here know about it?”

“It’s open. All staff have been informed, nearly a month ago. Why?”

“If that’s the case, then I’d guess that both of them have resigned.”

“Jules is the chef and he quit weeks ago, said there was no chance in hell he’d work for my father again. He’s been talking for a while now about getting out of Chicago altogether. The concierge wouldn’t care, she’d just walk out and she can, he can’t touch her and he knows it. She comes from old money, her father is one of his closest golf buddies and her mother is behind some of the most exclusive events in town. Alison works because she wants to not because she has to.” It was ‘Remy that had the answers. “They both tried to help me in the past, but they were threatened when they came near me. It was good to see them last night. If you can help them, please do. They deserve a second chance.” ‘Remy seemed to have a better grasp than we did.

“You got it, little brother.” Anderson calling my ‘Remy, ‘brother?’ Whoa?! I’d never known him to welcome someone so quickly, but I have to admit, I was secretly pleased he liked my husband enough to call him ‘brother’.

“The takeover is good for us, Thomas. It means that de Silvary will be occupied elsewhere. So, while he can’t report ‘Remy missing for 24 hours, he’s probably noticed ‘Remy’s absence. With the takeover, he won’t have time to do much about it today, he’s got meetings all morning and the takeover is scheduled for a midday session with his legal team at their office on East Ohio Street. The briefings that go with this will keep him distracted until late this afternoon. ‘Remy? Have you stayed away from home before? After one of these ‘episodes’?” ‘Remy nodded to Anderson, but didn’t try to interrupt. “Good. How often? Where do you normally stay? How long before he starts looking for you?”

“It depends. On where I am when they find me, how bad they hit me and how much it hurts. They don’t usually hurt me this bad. If I need to stay away, I check into a hotel. He usually sends a driver for me within 2 days, sometimes he gives me longer, if it’s worse. I think my cell’s tapped, because he always knows where I am. Oh, God. My cell! You gotta get rid of it! He’ll track me!” He was starting to get frantic again.

Before I could do anything other than reach for ‘Remy, Anderson spoke.

“Easy, little brother. Easy. Your cell’s been dealt with. It’s gone. If he does track it, he’ll find it in pawn shop. I got Jed to arrange an afterhours drop off. Let’s get things moving while we know de Silvary is busy. How long before you two are packed and ready to move? Please don’t take long. I want us out of here by 6.30am.”

“We’re ready now. Thomas’s bag is packed and I don’t have anything with me, but my other cell and my wallet.” ‘Remy was pouring himself an orange juice as he spoke.

“Oh, yeah. Your wallet? I think we’d better carefully leave it behind. The chances are, if he had a RFID chip in your cell, it’s likely that there’s one in your wallet too. Regardless, as we didn’t check your cell until after we brought you here, he’ll know you spent the night here, in the hotel. So, we’ll leave it here, not in the suite but in one of the public areas. The sooner we are out of here the better, brothers.” It gave me a warm feeling each time Anderson called ‘Remy brother.

‘Remy picked up his wallet and handed it to Anderson.

“There’s nothing in it I need. Everything in it he provided. The stuff I stole from his safe last night, no, the night before. It’s in a bag in a locker at Millennium station. I couldn’t risk carrying it around. That’s the only Id I have, no licence, just a passport.”

“Do you have the key? We can stop and grab it before heading for the airport. What number?”

“You mean, you can grab it. I’m not up for dealing with early morning commuters and Thomas stays with me. Here’s the key, it’s number 142 on the lobby level.” Cheeky brat. Possessive too. Nice. He handed over a key on a lanyard, as I picked up my duffle bag. We both followed Anderson out the door of the suite.

We ducked down the hallways to the service elevators, taking one straight down to the parking level. There were still security cameras, but at least this way we had less chance of meeting with de Silvary and his people and maybe we’d get lucky and he wouldn’t think to check the security cameras for our floor until this evening or maybe even tomorrow. By which time we’d be long gone. Yeah, it wouldn’t be hard for him to track ‘Remy to us, or us to our plane and get flight plans, but as Doc said, ‘Remy is over 21 and our marriage is legal. de Silvary is stuck, whichever way he turns, we’ve cut off all his options but one. ‘Remy is out of his father’s hands. Hmm…

“Remy, love? Ann said that you came up with the ideas behind the recognition system as well as that transiting software. Did you have to sign these over to de Silvary? Did you have any contracts with him?” That could cause problems if ‘Remy had to provide de Silvary with a certain number of ideas.

“No. I never gave him anything. I never signed anything. I’d work on an idea on my personal computer and a week or two later he’d be giving outlines of it to the research department to implement. I still haven’t figured out how he accessed my pc, the security on it shouldn’t have let him in, it should have shown him nothing but games, random internet access and a couple of dummy projects.”

Anderson looked thoughtful as he drove through the light morning traffic.

“Good. That means we don’t have to be concerned about legally having to have contact with him. I want him to just let you disappear. I know that’s not very likely but we can hope. If he doesn’t then we can provide whatever pressure we need to get him to back off and leave you alone.” De Silvary was going leave my ‘Remy alone no matter what it took. I needed my ‘Remy happy.

Only moments later Anderson pulled into the drop off zone at Millennium Station. He was out of the car and gone within seconds and back with ‘Remy’s bag in minutes. He pushed the bag through the seats to us and had the car moving again before he’d done the seat-belt up. We headed west towards the expressway and Midway International Airport. It would take us less than 40 minutes to get there due to the morning’s traffic, but I wasn’t going to feel safe until we were in Canadian airspace.

The car was left in the return banks for the hire company. Obviously someone had called ahead as the hire company had a wheelchair waiting for ‘Remy. There was no way he would be able to walk from the car to the terminal to the restaurant then on to the gate to meet our plane. He gave me a flat stare when I manoeuvred the chair beside his door, but said nothing. Once he was down I slid my hand over his shoulder and rubbed my thumb under his jaw. It was pretty much the only place that wasn’t bruised. The wheelchair made him look more invalided than he was and his bruising would be accepted as part of whatever accident put him in the chair. People in wheelchairs tended to be either ignored or very quickly forgotten and for us that was good.

I had no idea which restaurant we were meeting the others at, but as we entered the terminal, my cell beeped at me.

 

Illinois Bar and Grill

Far left of lobby

Hurry up.

I’m hungry.

 

Typical Christie. Blunt. And hungry. Always.

Good food, good company and laughter. A nice way to start the day. Yeah, okay, ours started earlier, but the day is never truly started until you’ve eaten. I still don’t drink coffee, preferring juice, smoothies, milkshakes or even tea, but at least ‘Remy likes good coffee, if I have to taste it on him, I’m glad he drinks quality stuff. Anderson made sure that there would be something decent on the plane for those who missed breakfast, as well as snacks and the like for everyone else. It’s roughly a 4 hour flight and while the rest of the team would be taking off by 9.15am, we would be waiting for Ann and Gwen’s group to arrive, sometime close to 10am. We were scheduled to depart a few minutes before 10.45am, this would put us on the ground in Pitt Meadows at approximately 2.30pm. As we would have Kallie with us I kind of hoped that we would avoid any turbulence, I didn’t know how much pain she was in and if that would make things worse. I wanted today to go smoothly for us.

The Baby J’s cabin crew met us at the gate they were using, they had a trolley loaded with foodstuffs for the galley. Christie was flying with them as they would be landing before us, even though GoGo’s flying time was nearly 30min less than Baby J’s.

He wanted to see that accommodation was sorted and suitable for everyone. In addition to this he was in charge of giving people keys and showing them their new homes, as well as providing them a vehicle from our fleet. They would meet with Bobby on Thursday morning, to go over staff Id’s, system logins and a tour of our facilities. Michael had suggested that as they would be working closely together that a little distance in their living spaces might be appreciated, but to keep them close enough that if they wanted to socialise there would be no need to drive.

Marianne was to meet Joshua, Peter and Jessica first thing in the morning, they had children that would be attending our school, so Marianne was supervising their enrolments. Jessica’s son had a minor disability and we had a teacher’s aid to assist him, he was so excited to meet her at the airport, Misty was moving from our transport wing to education now that she’d finished her master’s degree in special education. Peter’s eldest daughter would only be with us for the remainder of the scholastic year before attending University of British Colombia to study Public Relations Management. Joshua’s three kids had at least 4 years before needing to think about college. By the time we all met up for a barbeque Friday night, most of them should be in their new homes and be looking forward to a weekend exploring a new area.

 

But that was all still in front of them as they boarded the Baby J from Midway’s concourse C. Our list of passengers was considerably larger than we had expected. Each of the 7 members of the research team were bringing family and we were including Jessica and Ann as part of that team. Joshua was bringing his wife, son and 2 daughters. Peter had 2 daughters coming with him, at this point his third daughter was to stay with his ex-wife, as she was also special-needs and we weren’t ready for her just yet but planned to be for the beginning of the next school year. Luke’s husband would the only one travelling with him, they were hoping that our Mrs P would help them adopting children or at least a child. Andy had his 2 younger brothers and their sister, all of which would be attending U of BC next year, although I know that Anderson was hoping to get the younger of the brothers to join his Security Department. The lad was pretty impressive on the gun ranges. Jessica’s baby girl, brought her tab to 3. Gwen was bringing Kallie. Ann was the only one with no partner or dependents.

Not to mention Christie had arbitrarily decided that we were taking the hotel’s executive chef and concierge. Jules’s wife was in her last trimester with their first baby and as it had been a difficult pregnancy she was staying with her family in Seattle’s north. Clare would travel with Jules tomorrow to collect her and whatever family members wanted to stay with her. Alison’s partner was coming with us, she was a proof-reader for a publishing company and could work anywhere there was internet access.

Turns out Trey had offered Doc a chance to semi retire and a lake house to do it in. Without consultation at that. Go Trey. Doc and his wife, Lucy were going run our small medical centre, up to now we had only be able to have a nurse on duty and had to call Clare in for emergencies.

We had gone from a 7 person target list to a total of 25 people, not including family or existing staff. Baby J’s final passenger count was 22 newbies, 2 family, 2 staff, 3 cabin crew and 3 flight crew. I was glad we had decided to bring Baby J, if we’d been travelling on commercial flights, it would have cost a small fortune. Then there was those of us flying on the GoGo, that was a much smaller list. My ‘Remy and I, Anderson, Trey, Ann, Kallie and Gwen were the passenger list. So along with 2 cabin crew and 2 flight crew, we were travelling reasonably light.

We hugged and said our farewells to those flying on Baby J, neither Remy nor I would see them until the BBQ on Friday night. I planned to spend the weekend with my family. And my husband. I just hoped that the rest of the family liked him as much as Anderson and Christie did.

How the hell did I luck out with him? According to the family curse I should never of found him. Not with Merri dead, anyway. The only thing that put a dampener on my joy was Merri and Christie. They should have met, the same day as I had my Remy. According to the curse, that is. I’ve told Christie about the curse and how I believed that he was a corner of our square. A square made up of Merri, Christie, ‘Remy and I. Together we balance out our four souls, apart we are … uneven, I guess would be the best description. Merri had bouts of near hysterical happiness, almost like she’d been on a drugged high. Me, I had bouts of.. not depression, more like negativity, sadness, but even that’s not quite right, maybe emptiness is more like it. Christie is more. More vibrant, caring, passionate and also more emotional. Just like you’d expect of someone with more soul than the average person. I couldn’t wait to hear how having that extra bit of soul had impacted on my Remy. I had time to find out later, now we needed to concentrate on getting home.

Anderson, Remy and I boarded the GoGo early so I could introduce him to Blake and Clare. Blake’s the captain of this flight and his first mate is Jed, Anderson's ex-teammate. Blake, Jed, Tim and Steve had followed Anderson’s lead when he left the military, but while Tim is an on-call instructor for us, both Jed and Steve stayed with Anderson and joined our security section. We moved Blake to transport very quickly, it’s handy having a military trained pilot on the team, Clare took one look at him and that was it, they were married within two days. Seems to be a family trait.

I gently carried ‘Remy to my usual seats, setting him down and going looking for a blanket for him. Anderson vanished after saying he would let me know when Gwen and Ann entered the airport. In the meantime we would have a little privacy, as Clare would be waiting with Anderson for Trey and Kallie. Blake and Jed were completing the last inspection of the plane and would also wait for the others before boarding.

My plan for the next half hour was to spend it kissing my ‘Remy, learning the flavours of him and the sounds he made. I lost myself in him and way before I was ready, we heard the others coming down the air-bridge between the terminal and the GoGo. I continued to hold and whisper to ‘Remy while Trey and Clare got Kallie from her wheelchair and into a flight seat, getting her settled and comfortable. Gwen took the seat beside her, while Ann sat across the aisle with Clare. Anderson and Trey made their way to the seats they preferred to use, as Blake and Jed headed for the cockpit.

The flight was easy and turbulence free. We touched down on time, but due to another plane’s complications we would have to wait for anything up to an hour before we could disembark. I went up to speak to Blake and get him to let Christie know what the delay was about. On my way back to ‘Remy I planned to stop and speak to Gwen and Kallie.

I closed the cockpit door behind me and turned towards the cabin. Taking one step into the cabin I stopped short. In shock. Stunned. I moved back to my seat and a smirking ‘Remy, walking like a zombie. I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen. It couldn’t be right. Could it? Looking at ‘Remy, it all suddenly made sense.

“You knew!” I fell into my seat.

“I knew.” The smirk became a grin.

“But?... Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were so convinced. So certain. I needed you to see it for yourself. Not to be swayed by me. You needed to see. I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out before, when you went through their files.”

“No. I… Oh, Lord! But…” I’d read the files but I’d missed the connection.

Anderson leaned across the aisle.

“What’s going on, brothers? ‘Remy? What’s got him so shook up?”

“Tell him, please, ‘Remy?” I was struggling to come to grips with it all.

“Anderson. Kallie is Kalula. Before she married Gwen her nickname was Lulu.” He waited for Anderson to understand, it only to seconds for Anderson’s eyes to widen and his breath to catch.

“Yes, brother. Kallie is my mother Lulu. She’s alive. My mother is alive!” Talk about a bombshell.


	10. Chapter 10

Wednesday, 07 August, 2013

 

Lulu was alive.

And here!

On this plane!

“Anderson, do whatever you have to, say whatever you have to. They are staying at my place tonight. I don’t care what it takes. Make it happen. Please?”

“Will do brother. I’ll let Christie know and he can sort it.”

Christie… Oh, God. What about Merri?

Okay, ‘Remy knew it and Anderson had figured it out, fast. But I hadn’t. In my defence I was still in shock from discovering Lulu alive. Just thinking of Christie, however, made all the dots join up to show me the picture I’d missed. If Kallie’s daughter is Ann and Lulu’s daughter is Merri, then if Kallie _is_ Lulu, it means that Ann _is_ Merri. My head turned like a puppet’s until I faced the front of the plane again. Ann is Merri! No wonder she sounded, smelt and looked like my sister. She _is_ my sister! How did I miss that? How did I _not_ see that? It was so obvious now.

How the blazes did I explain? How do I tell them? _What_ do I tell them? The only thing I knew was that I wasn’t going to do this on a plane. I needed to do this at home.

“How much longer are we going to be, Anderson? I want us at home, fast.”

“The ground crew are bringing a wheelchair elevator around. Kallie will be first off. I’ve texted Christie and warned him that you want them at your place, so he’s got the Limo coming for you. It should be here by the time we clear the terminal. I didn’t say why, just that you needed it this way. He’s got KatyCat and Surian getting food for you and doing a quick clean up. Trey and I are across the road, so if you need us, just yell. We’ll be there. I’ll bring Michael up to speed while we’re in transit and keep everyone else at bay for as long as I can… And? Here we go.” The cabin door opened and our crew spoke to whoever was outside.

It only took a few minutes and Kallie/Lulu was being helped into the Limo. I strode to the front and held the door for ‘Remy, sliding in after him. Only Ann and Gwen got in the back with Kallie/Lulu. Obviously Anderson had said something to Clare, but I couldn’t make myself care what he’d told her. All I could think about was the women in the back seat. My mind was racing. I still had no idea what to say to them.

Still, 35 minutes later I was still no closer to knowing what to say. The 5 of us were in my living room, each with a drink and a plate of cookies on the coffee table. Gwen and Kallie/Lulu sat on one sofa, ‘Remy and I on the second sofa, while Ann was curled up in a recliner.

Gwen was the first to speak.

“I thought we were staying in a hotel until our furniture arrived?”

“That was the intent. Yes. There’s been a slight change to that.” How did I say it? I suppose bluntly is the easiest. “I’d like the three of you to stay here tonight. I’d like us to get to know each other a bit better.”

Ann and Gwen looked at each other before Ann spoke.

“Do you have a room that wheelchair friendly? Mom can walk, just not much and the wheelchair is better when she’s tired.”

“Yes. All of us have wheelchair friendly houses, we have a brother who uses a chair a lot.” Hmm… mentioning brothers is not going to help. How to get around that? Oh, yes. Like that. “A car accident nearly put Liam in a wheelchair for life. Our baby sister, Sarah is the only one born into our family, the rest of us are all adopted. I was born in the US, as was Christie. The rest of the siblings are Canadian born. Until recently I thought my birth family was dead. I barely knew my birth father, he didn’t have any contact with us until our teens. Possibly because my mother was gay or maybe because she used to move my sister and I about a lot. We lived in more than a dozen places while we grew up. Then one day it was all over. My father killed them. I thought.” If I came right out and said I was Ricky, would they believe me? Maybe. Maybe not. If I give them all the information I have and then tell them my name, what if they still won’t accept it? The only other things I can come up with is the Gypsy- … Oh. Yeah. The thumb thing. I’d forgotten that. That might work.

As I talked and told them about Michael, Marianne, Tobias and Christie and how we came to be the family we are, the only things I left out were my name and when this all happened. While I said all this, I had my left hand at my mouth and every so often I would close my teeth on the flesh of my thumb. I watched as, every time I did this, Ann would twitch and rub her left thumb too. Slowly I increased the pressure of my bites until it almost hurt.

When I finished my story I stood and walked into my den, opened the safe and brought out a photo album. Taking it I went back to the living and moved around the coffee table until I was opposite Ann/Merri and put the album on the coffee table. I slowly and obviously brought my hand back to my mouth and bit my thumb. Hard. While Ann/Merri gasped I had one last thing to say.

“My birth mother named me Monsordric.”

Silence met me. Then…

“Liar! My brother is dead!” Ann/Merri was upset.

I didn’t say anything. I bit my thumb again and pulled the cuff of my shirt up to show the platinum cuff.

“Thief! Where did you get that?! It was stolen from our house!” Ann/Merri wasn’t backing down.

I bit my thumb again while I opened the collar of my shirt to show Merri’s globe with its Chrysolite sphere inside. I hadn’t said a word since I said my name.

“That’s mine! My brother gave it to me for my birthday! How did you get it?!”

I bit my thumb hard a 4th time and opened that album to the first page, it had a photo of Merri, Lulu, Athan and I.

“Damn it! Stop biting me, Ricky!” I never said Ricky.

Silence again.

“R-Ricky?...” It wasn’t Ann/Merri that spoke this time. Lulu sounded so scared, kinda like I felt an hour ago.

“Ricky’s dead!” Merri nearly yelled it. I realised that even though the woman sitting opposite me had been introduced to me as Ann yesterday, I was already thinking of her as Merri.

“Merri. Merri. Merri.” I was almost chanting it, laughing at the same time, tears pouring down my face. Merri was raging, ranting. Nearly screaming.

“My brother is dead. Ricky is dead.” Over and over.

This continued for a few minutes. Until…

“Merridiann Leah.”

Silence. Again.

“Mom?”

Lulu had the album pulled close to her, she’d flipped pages as she looked at pictures.

“Come here, please, Merridiann.” She called Merri to her side and pointed at a photo.

It was one taken at our last birthday together, the day Anthony James destroyed my life. Merri and I were standing in front of the driveway, I was standing behind Merri leaning on her shoulder, we had identical resigned looks on our faces. The one thing we both disliked was having our photo taken together. Merri was always taller and more mature looking. I looked like her much younger brother, even though I was 6 minutes older. I didn’t catch up to my age in looks until after I turned 20.

It was a picture that Mom had taken, earlier in the morning of our birthday, when we had exchanged necklaces. The same necklace that I now wore. As I watched Merri opened the high neck of her shirt to show the pendant she had had made for me. The photograph was on the memory card of the camera I had found in my pocket, after I showered in the trailer in Gio’s warehouse. As I hadn’t taken it to the camera shop before the party, they didn’t have copies of these pictures. This was the first time either of them would see these images.

“It’s not possible.” Merri was whispering now.

I bit my thumb again, hard.

“Dammit! Stop doing that!”

I grinned, my thumb still between my teeth.

“Why?”

“Because it hurts!”

“What hurts?”

“My thumb hurts.”

“When?”

“When you bite it.”

“Your thumb hurts when I bite it?”

“Yes.”

“Your thumb hurts when I bite it?”

“Yes.

“Your thumb hurts when _I_ bite it?”

“Yes! My thumb hurts when you bite it!”

“Do you hear yourself, Merri? Your thumb hurts when I bite it. How does that even happen?”

“I don’t know! Alright! It’s always been like that! You bite your thumb and mine hurts. I bite my thumb and yours hurts. It’s always been like-” Merri was ranting was cut off stream. She turned to look at me. Fully at me. Like she could finally see me.

“Ricky? You’re really here? Alive? How?”

“It’s a long story, Merri. I-” She didn’t give me a chance to say anything else.

“Why didn’t you say something yesterday? Why leave it until now?”

“I didn’t know. Until the plane landed I just didn’t know. Until I saw Lulu as I came out of the cockpit, it never occurred to me that you might be alive. Anthony James told Jimmy Bowen that he’d taken care of both of you and as he’d just shot Merri twice in the chest and me in the-“

“He shot you?!” Lulu was furious!

“-arm. I took that to mean that both of you were dead. Especially as no matter how hard I searched I could not find any proof that you were alive. Okay, there was no proof that you were dead, either. But as hard as I searched I never found any proof you were alive. None. Nothing. Nada. Zip.” I sat down beside ‘Remy and reached for his hand, I needed that contact.

“But-”

“Four years ago, I found there was a chance that Lulu was alive, but I still couldn’t find proof. Just that you’d survived the shooting and left the hospital, but nothing more. I searched for address changes, marriages, births, name changes and even deaths. But nothing.”

“No. None of those happened.” Lulu commented.

“I don’t understand.” No, I didn’t understand, how could there not?

It was Merri that explained for me.

“We still live in the same house. Everything still works the same. Well, until today anyway. Mom and Kallie haven’t done the legal thing yet. Mainly because we both wanted answers before we moved on with their lives. We were going to hire a private investigator to get our answers. But we decided that was kinda pointless in the end. You were dead. Legally anyway. We were never going to find you if you didn’t want to be found and we knew it. The way you mind worked was frightening. The plots and twists you could lay out would keep us searching for years, decades even. If you didn’t want to be found you would never be found. It was time to move on and let our memories be a comfort instead of a pain.” She took a deep breath before continuing.

“And now that we do… Now that we decide to start fresh… Here you are. Standing in front of us. Part of me is saying, ‘no way’. Part of me is saying, ‘you should have seen this yesterday’. And there’s a part of me that’s saying, ‘just touch him and get it over with, then you’ll know for sure’. Do you remember that? How we used to ground each other. I was always on a happy high and you were always on a flat low, unless we were together and then we were both happy, even, level.”

“Yeah, I remember. I used this a lot.” Holding Merri’s globe out from my neck. “That and…” I had to tell her. As soon as Merri got over the shock, she would start to think and that was dangerous ground.

“And…?”

“The only things that evened me out… until yesterday and ‘Remy, anyway. The only things that evened me out were this and… Christie.”

“Christie?... Oh. You mean your tall, dark and handsome sidekick from yesterday? He’s hot.”

“Good, I’m glad you think that. I rescued him on the 14th of august, the Thursday after I saw you last.” Would she get the connection?

“The Thursday? The Thursday after the shooting?” Slowly she turned and looked at Lulu with a small frown marring her smooth forehead.

“Yes.” I didn’t say anything else. What else could I say? _‘Is that the same day you met ‘Remy? We should have met each other’s Heart on the same day.’_ Yeah, that’d go down well.

“Wasn’t that the day I was moved from intensive care to the children’s wards?” Lulu nodded. “I shared a room with ‘Remy. His dad tried to get him moved to a private room but the doctor kept putting it off.” Oh, thank God!

Lulu gasped. She got the connection, even if Merri hadn’t yet.

“Where is he? Why isn’t he here?” Lulu demanded.

“Christie flew in on the other plane with everyone else. He’s taking care of the others, getting them to their accommodation, letting them know what to expect over the next couple of days.” I responded.

“I don’t understand? Shouldn’t he be here. With you?”

“Ah… I haven’t told him that you’re here. I mean that you’re my Mom. I mean…I don’t know what I mean. He still thinks that you’re both just employee’s, yet.” I winced as I said this. I knew Lulu wasn’t going to like that. Nothing was supposed to come between introducing your twin to their Heart. Nothing.

“Monsordric! How could you?!” Yep, she didn’t like that. I was also reminded how much I disliked my first name.

 

“Mom?” Obviously Merri hadn’t made the connection.

“Call him. Now, Monsordric.” I definitely don’t like that name.

“Yes, Mom.”

“I’ll do it.” ‘Remy took the phone from me and walked into the kitchen. I was kinda glad ‘Remy had just taken the phone, that he hadn’t asked, if he didn’t ask I couldn’t say no. I knew that as soon as he knew, Christie was gonna be mad at me. Christie mad at you was _not_ a good thing. Ever. And especially not today.

“Mom?” Merri still hadn’t figured it out, but given the shock of the last half hour, that was reasonable. I had better explain or I’d have both of them, no, all three of them mad at me. Not good, that.

“Merri, ‘Remy is my Heart.” She gasped when she heard that. “You met him the same day I met your Heart. Merri, I’ve known since the moment I first touched his hand, Christie is your Heart. He grounded me, just like you did. He’s been my brother ever since.”

“Ricky?!” Yeah, she hadn’t figured it out. Ouch. Suddenly I was glad I’d stood and walked about as I had been speaking, it meant that the sofa was between Merri and I. I just knew she was gonna take a swipe at me when she was close enough.

“My Heart? But-… Oh… For real?” Hope and fear were both written all over her face, but hope was winning.

“Yeah, Merri. Christie is your Heart, just as ‘Remy is mine.”

“ _Oh_. I was so sad yesterday. I knew ‘Remy was your Heart and he was marrying another man. But you were dead and he deserved to be happy. I could see how he looked at you, he adored you. I almost didn’t stand with him because, like I said, I knew he was your Heart, but you were dead. I thought. It was so confusing.”

“I know, Merri, I know. I felt the same with Christie. I nearly didn’t tell him about you, but I couldn’t do that to him, especially after all he’d been through. And no. I’m not going to tell you, that’s for him to tell you, not me. Be patient with him, it’s hard for him to talk much.”

‘Remy came back into the room wearing a big grin.

“Christie is on his way. Maybe we should let Merri meet him at the door?”

“Why? What’s he threatening to do this time?”

“Lock you in a room with re-runs of ‘I Love Lucy’ on a continuous DVD loop.”

“Ouch. You get to answer the door, Merri.”

Merri and Lulu laughed at me.

“I take it you still hate that show?” Merri questioned.

“I take it you still love it?” I retorted.

“Yep.” We went back and forth for a few minutes, trading insults. Just getting more and more comfortable with each other. The years crumbled to nothing as we bickered.

Until…

Tyres squealed as Christie’s car pulled into the driveway. Merri and I looked at each other, I knew how important the next few minutes were to her. I nodded and she headed for the front door. We hadn’t heard a car door close, so I guessed that Christie was still sitting in the car trying to pull himself together. It must have come as a huge shock to him. It was still a huge shock to me. I almost wondered if I would wake tomorrow and find the whole thing a dream. That scared me.

Finally we heard a car door close. Merri stood in front of the door, frozen. Christie knocked. Nobody moved. I think we were all too scared. Which is strange because he’s not that scary.

Christie knocked again, but didn’t wait for anyone to open the door this time. I watched as my front door opened, everything seeming to be in slow motion. Christie walking in and closed the door behind him, he stopped then and just looked. First at Merri standing in front of him, then across the room at ‘Remy and I, before turning to give a hesitantly shy smile to Lulu and Gwen. It only took moments for that smile to become he usual cheeky, beaming grin. Then he looked over at me again.

“You’re in it this time, Thoma- Rick-… Oh, hell… What do we call you now? Hmm… Don’t s’pose it really matters. You’re still my brother and you always will be.” With that he turned to Merri, reaching out one not-quite-steady hand, he brushed his fingers across her cheek, before sliding them down her neck to her shoulder.

“Merri? Where do we go from here?” He sounded so hesitant, so nervous.

“I don’t know. If Ricky-… Thomas?... If _my_ _brother_ explained about our curse to you, then you know what it means to us to find our Heart. That one person that balances us, that pulls us. I didn’t expect to meet you, not after the shooting. With Ricky dead there was no-one to lead me to my Heart. Meeting ‘Remy in the hospital was gut-wrenching, because I knew the moment our eyes met, that he was Ricky’s Heart and as far as I knew Ricky was either dead or being hunted. Hunted by a U.S. Marshall intent on killing him. He was as good as dead. When Anthony James was caught and charged with Ricky’s murder, there was a part of me that just gave up, that said I was never going to meet my Heart, so what's the point of even trying.” She had to take a couple of deep breaths before she could continue, tears clinging to her eyelashes.

“Yeah, I’m happy. I can’t help it, but even being happy, I knew there was still this place inside me that was empty. I thought it would never be filled. I did what I could to keep close to ‘Remy, I needed to have that connection. I needed that balance. I’d lost my twin, I was not going to lose his Heart. Now to see the two of them together? I’m so glad. So happy for them. But so scared for me. I’m on my own, but I’m not. Not really. You’re here. You are my Heart.”

Nothing else needed to be said there. We, the rest of us, all knew what it meant to find your Heart and how that connection felt. We didn’t need to talk about that connection, about how we felt about our Heart. We just needed to talk about everything else, to get up to speed on the rest of our lives together.

“Yes. Yes, I am. I can help you learn, or relearn about Thomas- I mean Ricky.” With that last comment, Christie looked away from Merri to me and then asked, “So… Thomas or Ricky? What’s it gonna be? We’ll need to bring the rest of the family in on this. We can’t have some of us calling you Thomas and others calling you Ricky. You need to decide what you’re going to be.”

“It’s not that simple, Christie. If I decide to go back to Ricky I’ll have to go through all the legal crap to change my name back. That will definitely not happen until after Anthony James is dead, or he’ll get to walk free and I’m not having that happen. Ever. But staying Thomas means that Merri and Lulu will have to remember not to call me Ricky again… Oh, oh. Marianne. Marianne can help. Maybe?... When we first met, Michael-. Oh crap.” I hadn’t told them Michael or Marianne’s names from before the shooting.

“Michael? Michael, what?” Lulu asked.

“Michael was already on the run. He thought that his brother had been involved in their parents deaths and their other brother’s death. He had overheard two of his brother’s security guards talking about how their boss had told them to catch and hold Michael hostage. How their boss wanted control of the business. It wasn’t until years later that he discovered that those men had not worked for his brother at all, but for another man. That man had ordered Michael’s parents deaths, a brother and his fiancé’s deaths and that the other brother was to be drugged. Michael hid in lots of places with lots of jobs, but when I ran into him in the forest, I instantly recognised him. He’d been teaching at our school. I’d been in one of his classes. He was trying to teach German and Russian, but not really having much luck. Merri, do you remember Mr Greenly?” I waited for her think about it.

“Yeah? I think so? Tall, dark, kinda looked like a giant teddy bear? That him?”

“Yeah. That’s him. That’s Michael. Anyway Michael took us to a man who helped us get fake ID papers, remember? When he started talking about new names, Marianne spoke up and told us she had been studying psychology and hypnotherapy’s at college. She came up with a way to programme us to respond to our new names using hypnosis. Kinda complicated, but it worked. Maybe we can do something like that. I think that we should tell the rest of the family some of the truth, but perhaps not all of it. Yeah, there are certain ones I want to know all of it, but…”

It was ‘Remy who came up with the solution.

“What if we tell everyone a certain amount of the truth? It’s well known that you are all adopted, right?” I nodded, not quite certain where he was going, but I had a vague idea.

“Well, if we tell everyone that Lulu is your birth mother, whom you though was dead, that will cover any slips if she or Merri call you Ricky.”

“You’ve made no secret that it was your birth father that killed them, so that would work, but what about Marianne? You’ve always said she’s your sister, but for that, she’d have to be Lulu’s child too, wouldn’t she?” Christie asked me.

“No. We can say Marianne an I were half siblings, we had the same father. Not mother. Then we can tell the truth as far as meeting up with Merri, but still not knowing it was her until I saw Lulu. That ‘Remy knew, but didn’t tell. Little brat.”

He grinned at me. The brat actually grinned at me. Then he tipped his head towards Christie. I looked at Christie and Merri, trying to do so objectively, but failing. When they had moved back into the living room and sat down, they had done almost exactly the same as ‘Remy and I, or Gwen and Kallie. One leaning against the other, the only difference was that Christie had turned on the sofa and put one foot on the seat, so Merri could sit between his legs and lean back on his chest. Like the rest of us, their hands moved continuously, touching and soothing each other, it was like a form of meditation for each couple, balancing and levelling out our emotions.

Before we could make any more suggestions, the house phone rang. I was tempted to just let it ring, but I knew that it would be Michael or Anderson and not answering for one of them was just unthought-of.

“Hey-ya?” I never answered the phone, any of them, with ‘hello’. ‘Hello’ was a warning signal.

“What the hell have you got into this time, buster?!” Oops, obviously Michael had spoken to Anderson.

“Michael, put me on speaker please?” I could give anyone listening an outline, while Michael would be able to read between the lines, and hopefully, come to same conclusions that we had.

“Thomas?”

“Please, Michael?” I heard the clicks and the echo-y sounds that signalled the hands-free speaker being used and I did the same on our end. I needed everyone seated around me to be able to hear and speak to Michael and whoever else was listening.

“Done. This better be good, Thomas.” He used my name as a warning, I could hear that, clearly.

“Michael, I want to say something and I need you to let me finish before saying anything. Okay? Please?” I held my breath, Michael defending family could be unpredictable at times.

“Yes, Thomas.” He sighed. Whew!

“Everyone in the family knows most of us, including me, are adopted. They all know that my birth father killed my mother and twin sister. Which is why I went to live with Marianne, after all she was my half sister. Right?” I hope he picked up on my cues.

“Right? Where are you going with this, Thomas?”

“Today I found out that my birth father didn’t kill my mother and twin after all. Oh, yeah, he tried. But he failed. They both lived. When our plane landed today I went up to the cockpit to talk to Blake and Jed to confirm wheelchair access for Gwen’s wife Kallie. With me so far?” Now for the hard bit.

“So far, yes.”

“Good. As I came back out of the cockpit, I stopped for a moment, then went back and sat beside ‘Remy. I couldn’t believe it. My mother was alive, Michael. Kallie is my mother! Ann is my Merri! My twin is alive. How many times have I spoke to her on the phone? I talked to her for hours yesterday and neither of us twigged! Michael, they thought I was dead. My birth father was charged with my murder, Michael.”

While I was saying this, my cell started to buzz, I saw it was Anderson calling, so handed it to Christie to deal with.

“Thomas? We got another problem.” Christie butted in.

“What now?”

“Anthony James is dead. 2 hours ago.” About the same time our plane landed at Pitt Meadows.

“Pick up the phone, Michael.” I waited for the sound to change, then continued. “Anderson just informed us that Anthony James is dead. About 2 hours ago. How about you and Marianne come over here and we’ll talk about all this? Yeah?”

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea, Thomas. We’ll be along in a bit. You news, has caused eruptions here. I’ll get them quietened down before heading out. Okay?”

“Anderson knows what's going on, I’ll get him over, too. Can Dar and Jenni mind the horde? For the evening?”

“They’re here, so I’ll ask. See you soon.” With that he hung up and I put the receiver back on the cradle gently.

This year would be a birthday to remember.


	11. Epilogue

Tuesday, 24 December, 2013

 

The house was silent, but I knew that wouldn’t last. Merri and Christie would be along soon with Lulu and Gwen. I still had trouble calling Lulu ‘Mom’. Sometimes it would come and other times, I just couldn’t say it.

 

We’d planned things very carefully that first night. We’d had to call Gio and tell him what had happened. He was sceptical at first, just until he saw Merri and I together. Once he’d seen us together it was clear, we were definitely twins. Most fraternal twins only share a general sibling resemblance, but Merri and I were mirrors of each other, my features were only slightly sharper than hers, our facial features were both slightly on the androgynous side of the scale, but only _slightly_. Along with our builds no one could be in doubt of our gender, we weren’t _that_ androgynous.

Once Gio had seen us together he was in for whatever we needed him for. We explained what we had come up with and he made a few suggestions of his own, before we settled on a working theory.

 

‘Anthony James had never intended us to know that he already had a family at the time that he met our mother, Marianne being his daughter from that relationship. This is why when Marianne decided that she should meet us, he snapped and went on his shooting spree. Marianne had rang our house earlier in the day and I had answered, I had agreed to speak to Anthony and Lulu at the party and we would all call Marianne at the hotel she was staying at. But after the shooting I ran to her at the hotel. She took me with her to meet her husband, who happened to be one of the relief teachers at my school. They had already adopted Tobias and Christie. And because of who our father was and who Michael’s family were, we all ran. Michael helped us buy fake papers from a friend’s friend and we came to Canada.’

 

The rest is history.

This is the story we told family, friends and police. With Anthony dead, there was no one to refute my story and Gio had made sure that the paperwork added up. We had no problem saying where our papers had come from because Tonio’s lady, the one that did our international papers, had died from a rather nasty dose of bird flu in 2004, one of the few times that disease was found in the US and as she had no family, there was no risk of exposure for them, either from the flu or us.

The hubbub with police died within a matter of days and thankfully Anderson’s security people were able to keep it out of the media, so we didn’t have to deal with them. There were certain members of the family who were told the lot and we planned to tell the rest as they got older, until it was just part of our history. Telling Mrs P, though, that was hard. She trusted us and we had lied to her, it took her a few days to get past that and realise that we had done it the way we had, to protect ourselves and to give anyone around us no cause to lie for us. Didn’t stop her from bringing us two more kids in need of our home.

Our birthday was the day after we landed in Canada with everyone and after talking it over with Merri, we decided that we needed to end the family curse. So I offered Athan what he thought was a job interview and had flown he, his Heart, Jessica as well as Grandda and his Heart Grampy, in to Pitt Meadows. We were well known for taking days to hold our interviews and that we liked our prospective staff to bring their family with them, so it was no stretch for Athan to bring Jessica, Grandda and Grampy with him and to expect to stay from Wednesday through the weekend to Monday, at least.

Just like Merri and Lulu, neither Athan, Jessica, Grampy nor Grandda guessed who I was when we spoke on the phone. But the were very surprised when Merri met them at the airport and introduced Christie as her Heart. Very surprised and not a little disbelieving, but when they got our home and Lulu backed her, they were kinda nervous. It was obvious there was something going on.

Yeah, I know I said we needed 3 generations and their Hearts. Great Aunt Nina and her Heart Matthew lived in Vancouver, so getting them out for the day was relatively easy. We just said that there was news on Anthony and wanted them there.

Merri had them all distracted so when I came in the door with ‘Remy, it took them all a while to join the dots and get a clear picture.

No, they weren’t ready for it. But come on? Were any of us ready for it? The shock of seeing people you thought were dead or should have been dead was _huge_. They got over it pretty quick or at least calmed down pretty quick. Enough to listen to me, when I asked for their help in ending the curse.

Athan and Lulu hadn’t spoken for years, Athan had always stated that Anthony James hadn’t killed me. Apparently Athan’s Jessica had seen me when Michael and I had met Theo at Calgary’s International Airport the same day that Anthony James was charged with my murder. Lulu wouldn’t listen, she still had Merri in hospital as well as dealing with the physical aftermath of her own injuries. I know she regretted whatever she told him at the time, but I needed both of them to let it go if we were going to have any success with the curse.

There was no precedent in the family for what we were going to try, so we had not idea what to expect, but when the twelve of us sat around the garden and joined hands, we were not really expecting the same sort of light show you get from setting a life-level curse. We all felt the effects of it, too. A soft gentle buzz, like a couple of pulls of happy gas. Then that slowly faded and the calm settled. We sat and waited for a bit longer but nothing else happened so we assumed that it was over. The only down-side was that there was no way to prove we had lifted the curse until my children met their Hearts or Merri got pregnant.

After that the family descended on us for our birthday dinner, they wanted to meet everyone and were so excited that Christie and Merri were gonna get married. We had a grand old time, laughing, crying at times, but all in joy. For the first time since the shooting our birthday didn’t involve going somewhere, just staying home. It was damn near perfect. It would have been, too, if ‘Remy hadn’t still been in pain. It took more than a week before he was over the worst of the beating.

‘Remy’s father tracked us down eventually, we knew he would, it did take him ten days, though. He started to bluff but we had all the aces and he knew it. Once he had a copy of our marriage certificate and realised it was legal, he knew he had no chance, then when we added to that the beatings ‘Remy’d endured at the hands and feet of de Silvary security teams and the video feed that Anderson had had retrieved from de Silvary’s security cameras, he suddenly had nothing to say. ‘Remy told him there was no reason to contact us again, that we were staying in Canada and wanted nothing more to do with him. So far, he’s left us alone.

We are still a few months away from trialling a working prototype of ‘Remy’s facial recognition software, but we had used parts of it in our vehicle recognition programme, that we used as part of our security for gated communities.

So here we were on Christmas Eve, ready for family to arrive. They weren’t the only ones coming. Gio, Tonio and Theo were coming, too. As was Luther, Zarly, not so little Seb and the new baby that we hadn’t yet met. They’d named her Melissa, after Luther and Michael’s mother. Michael and Maria have named their last baby after Michael’s father, calling him Steven.

There seems to be baby boom happening in the family, Clare and Blake are expecting their first, while Dar and Jenni are waiting on their third to arrive. Bobby and his wife, Rachel, are also one their first, but Anderson and Trey are happy with the twins Mrs P found them. ‘Remy and I have decided to wait a bit before we increase our numbers. However, Merri and Christie are already pregnant!

The curse is broken finally!

I’m just happy to have my family around me. A part of me always said Merri was alive, never accepted her being dead.

How’s that for An Unexpected Truth?


End file.
